New solutions to plastic pollution,
November 11, 2022
The British company Xampla is currently using vegetable proteins to make liquid resins for conversion into a variety of products.
This core technology is suitable for a variety of applications: soluble films to wrap dishwasher tablets and laundry detergents; microcapsules containing fragrances for personal care and household products or to protect vitamins in food and beverages; edible film wrappers for cooking food, etc.
The product is one of the few vegetable protein solutions to replace plastic. After 15 years of technical development, Xampla plans to rapidly scale up production over the next 12 months, starting with a pilot plant.
Pea Protein Solutions
With Europe banning microplastics by 2025, the market is expected to see more demand to replace tiny plastic beads hidden in products.
The protein was chosen because it is affordable, scalable and food-grade, said Stanley Mitchell, Xampla business development manager. In fact, a variety of plant proteins can be used, including plant waste or byproduct materials, and the latter two are being explored for non-food grade applications. Non-food grade materials have been shown to perform well in a variety of applications. For example, proteins from broad bean shells and potato proteins (a by-product of starch extraction) can be used in film packaging and cosmetic applications.
Xampla produces resins that can be formulated to match the key properties of plastics in specific applications. For example, film resins can be formulated to match solubility, heat sealing ability, solvent sealing ability, and can be designed to have the same strength as low-density polyethylene films.
The highly biodegradable nature of alternative materials is primarily protein, which is more chemically stable and can be digested by microorganisms in the environment. In contrast, using traditional chemical alterations requires cutting molecules, linking them to other chemicals, or joining molecules together, which would enhance them but reduce biodegradability.
The rationale for protein replacement plastics
In order to develop materials that could provide similar levels of performance to plastics, Xampla was inspired by some of the high performance materials found in nature, such as spider silk. Then, through research, it was discovered that proteins are one of the abundant materials in nature that can be engineered to produce materials with similar properties to synthetic materials, but will completely biodegrade in the environment.
How this works is that plant proteins are placed in a processing vessel containing water and organic acids, heated and cooled to produce a new structure with the same chemical composition that can be poured into any downstream processing technology. Typically, waste protein streams are produced in large quantities, but they are scattered in many locations, so the team is seeking to work with partners who create streams for resin production.
For specific applications such as microencapsulation or seed coating, Xampla is moving toward commercialization, but thin film resin production at scale may take longer. However, it is believed that this technology has all the elements to provide a scalable, fully rapid biodegradable solution, as it relies on widely available feedstocks and does not require challenging processing conditions.
Shaanxi Huike Botanical Development Co., Ltd. a integrated enterprise which is focus on natural products, plant extract related products and services.We mainly focus on pharmaceutical, functional food, Freeze-dried powder,Natural Pigment,beverages and other business services.
For more information about inulin, please contact us!
Email:marketing@huikes.com
2022-11-11
Shaanxi Huike Botanical Development Co., Ltd.
Shaanxi Huike Botanical Development Co., Ltd. a integrated enterprise which is focus on natural products, plant extract related products and services.We mainly focus on pharmaceutical, functional food, Freeze-dried powder,Natural Pigment,Homology of medicine and food,beverages and other business services.
