Plastics in general are well known for causing environmental pollution on land and in water as they take very long time to decompose and even if decomposed they become another micro plastics problem in natural environment. We strongly believe, we have an affordable and sustainable alternative by using agri biomass waste to produce products which can address the above concerns. The pyrolyser technology Eco Research Ltd (ERL) developed so far is able to produce high purity biocarbon (up to 90% biocarbon) from non-contaminated biomass residues. This biocarbon is very sustainable and interesting material which has the bonding capacity or can be used as bulk biocarbon material in a variety of biolpolymers and bioplastics applications. Our in-house testing of biocarbon with other bio-binders have shown great potential for use in 3D printing and food packaging. This is very interesting as we can produce biocarbon based materials more cost effectively than conventional biopolymers such as poly lactic acid (PLA). We are now seeking funding to build our pilot to be able to produce 3D printing filament which can then be used in conventional 3D printing applications as well few other formulations which can be used in food packaging and disposable kitchenware applications such as microwaveable frozen food packaging with no vapour formation from packaging during heating the food in microwave. We have done tests and have the results to show that our formulation is even stable at temperatures of 200 Celcius.
We will design the master batch formulations based on biocarbon and will conduct detailed R&D. We will then refine the formulations by testing end material properties (strength, modulus, plasticity (DMA studies)), melting temperature, melt index, wetting properties, microscopy and elemental analyses etc.) as well as produce the 3D Print filament for commercial 3D printers. We will also be able to incorporate other desirable properties such as florescent and antimicrobial properties in the biocarbon formulations (for 3D print resins) which will be highly desirable in some end uses and cannot be incorporated in conventional bioplastics.
We will add more value to waste biomass to manufacture biocarbon from £300 per tonne to £12000 per tonne in niche 3D printing market. This new product formulation will be patented together with biocarbon production and 3D printing filament integrated production process. This formulation is next big thing in biodegradable 3D printing and food packaging.
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