A new process with zero emissions for truly biodegradable plastics

This press release has been published by EurekAlert!, AlphaGalileo and WIT News.

The European project PROMICON issues five policy recommendations to support a new method for the production of sustainable bioplastics from microorganisms.

Petrol-based plastics are present in many aspects of our daily lives, from clothing to food packaging. They are often left behind in the environment, where they degrade, breaking into thousands of tiny pieces that harm ecosystems and human health. While biodegradable plastics are seen as a potential solution, their production remains limited, accounting for just 1.3 million tons in 2022 compared to 400 million tons of petrol-based plastics. Many biodegradable plastics also fail to biodegrade efficiently under all environmental conditions such as soil, rivers, and oceans.

In this context, researchers from the Horizon 2020 project PROMICON have developed an innovative method that leverages photosynthetic microorganisms (cyanobacteria) to produce polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) – a type of bioplastic that fully degrades in soil, water, and marine environments. PHA is naturally produced by microorganisms, but scaling up its production remains a challenge:

‘Commercially produced PHA is nowadays highly energy-intensive and relies heavily on organic raw materials and clean water, which conflicts with the EU’s goals for a circular, sustainable economy. The current production process is far away from the zero emissions neutral carbon strategy.’ – explain the authors of PROMICON’s policy brief.

The new approach for PHA production proposed by researchers from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia uses sunlight, absorbs CO2, and requires minimal organic resources, creating a truly biodegradable plastic alternative that leaves no microplastic residues.

Find out more about the new method for PHA production here.

New PROMICON policy brief