BioSupPack has been launched: The new BBI-JU funded project will develop innovative bioplastic packaging from brewery by-products 

BioSupPack is geared towards contributing to the European bio-based circular economy by developing Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA)-based packaging solutions derived from residues and demonstrating a viable recycling process for these bio-based plastic materials to make sure resources stay in the loop. Today, the 3.5-year project has officially launched during the virtual kick-off meeting on 15 and 16 June 2021, bringing together 17 partners from 8 countries. BioSupPack receives funding from the Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI-JU) and Horizon 2020 framework. 

Ms Ruiz Sierra from the BBI-JU welcomed the consortium partners at kick-off meeting. She emphasized the critical role of projects, such as BioSupPack, in fostering collaboration among diverse stakeholders and pooling expertise to achieve the European Commission’s European Green Deal goals: 

“BioSupPack is an excellent example of how research & innovation can address the current challenges that are threatening our world & society and contribute to the European Green Deal goals. BioSupPack will deliver green and circular solutions by transforming agro-food industry by-products into bio-based packaging solutions while addressing the recyclability of end products. At BBI-JU, we have put many hopes into this demo project. We are sure that your work during the next years will be crucial towards the expansion of new bio-based packaging solutions in Europe while ensuring environmental protection.“

The consortium 

Coordinated by AIMPLAS and equipped with a budget of 8.8 million Euro, BioSupPack will develop a demonstrative process for the production and enzymatic recycling of environmentally safe, superior, and versatile rigid packaging solutions based on the novel bio-based polymer family of PHAs. 

In several interlinked working groups, the project consortium partners will obtain PHAs from brewer’s spent grain and other monomers from enzymatic recycling of PHA packaging waste. Based on these PHA compounds, several rigid packaging prototypes with tailored barrier properties will be designed at a pilot scale and tailored towards the feasible waste collection and separation options. The packaging solutions will include injection-moulded PHA and biocomposites demonstrators as well as well as PHA-coated fibre-based service packaging and ready meal trays. 

Eventually, the project partners will develop an enzymatic recycling process for recovering the PHA from these new packaging solutions – while the paperboard fraction can be repulped –, demonstrating the feasibility of upcycling post-industrial waste within the production process. The prototypes will be assessed regarding their environmental and socio-economic sustainability and the safety of the new bio-based packaging. 

Supported by more than 25 % private equity as a BBI-JU, BioSupPack receives funding from European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and the Bio-Based Industries Consortium under grant agreement No 101023685.