Our research projects

Title

Demonstration-plant project to produce poly-lactic acid (PLA) biopolymer from waste products of bakery industry.

Acronym

BREAD4PLA

Start

01.10.2011

End

30.09.2014

Coordinating Institute

Asociacion de Investigacion de Materiales Plasticos y Conexas

Coordinator

Contact

Partner

Internet

http://bread4pla.aimplas.es/

Summary

BREAD4PLA is a LIFE+ demonstrative European project. It will demonstrate to the European countries the feasibility of an innovative, user friendly and sustainable environmental solution which promotes the waste recovery in the specific agro-food sector of the bakery industry. The main objective of BREAD4PLA is to demonstrate, in a pre-productive continuous pilot plant process, the viability of polylactic acid (PLA) synthesis from waste products of the bakery industry and its use in the fabrication of a 100 % biodegradable film to be used in the packaging of bakery products, closing the life cycle. Other specific objectives are: - to increase the value of bakery waste by its recovery for acid lactic production, - to show the technical viability of the pre-industrial process of lactic acid from bakery waste, - to scale-up the polymerization process of PLA using lactic acid obtained from bakery waste fermentation, - to obtain a 100 % biodegradable thermoplastic film of PLA from the bakery waste 95 % from renewable resources, - to replace the current human food raw material to produce PLA by a residual one, avoiding the problems related to fluctuations in food prices. The project analyses and demonstrates the potential of natural non-food sources for bioplastics production, like the use of food industry waste instead of crops. It represents an interesting approach due to the use of non-conventional carbon sources to produce biopolymers and with a higher environmental contribution due to the use of biodegradable sources rather than fossil sources.

Funding

Grant agreement number