Issue 06/2018

Bioplastics from waste streams
Is Algae a sustainable
feedstock for bioplastics?
As demand for bioplastics grows, the industry is starting
to feel the challenge of finding sustainable biofeedstock.
Algae appears to be a promising source
[1]. Algae can be both grown commercially, or harvested
from commercial and industrial processes, such as water
treatment.
Growing algae commercially for bioplastics
applications
Algae is already commercially grown for nutraceuticals
(e.g. Omega 3 EPA/DHA), cosmetics, food and animal feed
supplements, according to Barry Cohen, President of The
National Algae Association (The Woodlands,Texas, USA).
Cohen notes that algae is a microorganism that doubles
in population every couple of days. Cohen estimates that
an algae producer would need only 60 days to cultivate a
particular strain for client review, testing, and certification.
Another 60-90 days may be required to fulfill a large volume
order suitable for bioplastics. Algae strains suitable for
bioplastics have already been proven in the lab.
Cohen notes that the biggest challenge to growing algae
for bioplastics is finding a client who can fund 30-40% of the
contract price upfront to fulfill a large volume order quickly.
The industry is self-funded and even though producers can
scale easily into commercial production, they have limited
resources to bear large volume production expenditures
alone. Partnerships within the greater supply chain will be
required to get commercially-grown algae into large-scale
bioplastics production.
Harvesting algae from existing water treatment
processes
Algae thrives in our wastewater and other high-nutrient
(i.e. polluted) environments. While its presence helps filter
harmful nutrients out of the water, its overgrowth in nutrientrich
conditions is also a menace [2] to freshwater supplies.
There is a rising demand to contain algae overgrowth
in waterways and reduce the water nutrient levels that
support algae. This can be done while harvesting algae to
generate feedstock for bioplastics and other applications.
Two innovative start-ups are seizing this opportunity:
Working with a wastewater treatment byproduct
Kelvin Okamoto is the Founder and CEO of Gen3Bio
(West Lafayette, Indiana, USA), an innovative company
that converts algae into biofeedstock for resale using a
proprietary blend of enzymes. Okamoto noted that Gen3Bio
harvests the algae from treatment processes that filter
problematic nutrients from wastewater.
Gen3Bio has a mobile pilot facility that hooks into the
nutrient removal systems at wastewater treatment plants,
utilizing its own blends of algae to do the job. Gen3Bio then
harvests the spent algae for processing and resale. The
company plans to share a percentage of net revenue from
the sale of the resulting algae biofeedstock with wastewater
facilities.
The main outputs of Gen3Bio’s operation include sugars,
fats, and proteins from the spent algae. Gen3Bio ferments
sugars extracted from the algae to produce succinic acid.
Succinic acid (cf. bM 03/2013) has multiple uses; among
them, it is a common ingredient in the production of
polybutylene succinate (PBS) (cf. bM 05/2016 and [3, 4]).
PBS is a biodegradable thermoplastic with properties
similar to polypropylene. It is sometimes blended with PLA.
It can be used for the production of both durables (e.g.
fishnets, automotive composites) and non-durables (e.g.
food packaging, disposable cups).
Harvesting algae out of our water supply
While Gen3Bio harvests spent algae from a wastewater
treatment process, Omega Material Sciences filters
problematic algae directly out of the water. Omega Material
Sciences (Lakeland, Florida Area, USA) is an R&D lab that
is working on a large-scale source of algae feedstock for
bioplastics. Its founder, Keith Ervin, has developed a water
treatment media to safely extract algae blooms from both
freshwater and wastewater at high volumes.
Ervin notes that traditional approaches to algae
remediation cannot generate biofeedstock at meaningful
scales because they kill off algae, leading the organism
to emit toxins into the water upon their demise. Ervin’s
method leads to chemical and mechanical separation
of algae blooms from water, making it safe and effective
in producing clean water and harvesting the algae at a
commercial scale.
Ervin has received significant attention from the water
treatment community for his technology. Building the
infrastructure to harvest his algae at scale to feed the
demand for bioplastics will require collaboration and
investment across industries, however. Ervin is looking for
partners and stakeholders to make this happen.
Algae-based materials may already be in your
shoes
Algae is already making an appearance in consumer
products. Algix, a company located in Meridian, Mississippi,
USA, has been producing a plastic composite out of algae
for some years. The algae is combined with traditional
plastics to create Algix’ Solaplast line of resins, which are
approximately 45 % algae. Ryan Hunt, Co-Founder and CTO
at Algix, stated that the algae acts as a biobased filler in
the Solaplast resins, lowering the environmental footprint
of the resulting composite.
22 bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/18] Vol. 13