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Department of Management - DISA

Climate KIC- Industrial demonstration of sludge to bioplastic pathway B-PLAS DEMO

Areas: Entrepreneurial universities, innovation, knowledge transfer, and industry collaboration

Programme EIT Climate-KIC

Coordinator University of Bologna Dept. of Chemistry "Giacomo Ciamician" - CHIM in collaboration with the Dept. of Management  (prof. Matteo Mura)

PROJECT Partners:

  1. CLIMATE-KIC
  2. ALMA MATER STUDIORUM, UNIVERSITA' DI BOLOGNA
  3. CAVIRO
  4. AIJU Instituto Tecnólogico
  5. PANNON PRO INNOVATIONS

Duration: three years - from 01/06/2018 to 31/05/2021

Objective: There is only one solution to obtain cheaper biodegradable plastics and to reduce sludge disposal at the same time: using a feedstock without value (wastes) and develop robust, simple and safe production processes.

The B‐PLAS project aims to realize fully automated plant that allows to convert food waste, waste sludge and other organic residues into Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA).

 PHA is a bio‐based and bio‐degradable plastic, suitable for packaging, disposable items, medical application and 3D printing.

Currently the cheapest bioplastic spool costs more than 30 € per kg, bioplastic pellets more than 6 € per kg, food and other organic wastes are readily available and free.

B‐PLAS process could be applied wherever organic waste and sludges are available.

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