Materials and technologies - October 2018
Food packaging
Guaranteeing the minimum shelf life required for foods can be a problem with biopolymers. Fraunhofer researchers have developed organically-based, biodegradable coatings (bioORMOCER®s) to improve the properties of bioploymers. Researchers at DUVASU in India have studied the possibilities for extending the shelf life of meat packaged in biodegradable film. An article (255 kB) about the research is published in the Journal of Animal Feed Science and Technology.
Researchers at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman have invented a novel nanocomposite antimicrobial packaging for Okra. An article (1.36 MB) about the research is published in Nanomaterials.
New distribution channels (e-commerce, food delivery, omnichannel) and an increasing diversity of food products pose new challenges to food packaging. To face these challenges and utilize the opportunities to the full, there is a need for a cross-chain, cross-industry, demand driven approach of food packaging. In the new project Food packaging of the future Pack4Food, Flanders’ FOOD and VIL will conduct a feasibility study.
Water borne coatings
The European Coatings Journal has compiled a thematic dossier on water-borne coatings. In it you will find all the relevant technical papers on water-borne coatings that have been published in the journal over the last 3 years. You can download the dossier for free after filling in your details.
Printed batteries
Science for Environment Policy has published a new Future Brief: Towards the Battery of the Future (1.12 MB). The brief provides an overview of technical aspects of battery design and production which enable the environmental footprint of batteries to be lowered. It also highlights how battery technologies are evolving to deliver better performance. One of the case studies in the report is about printed batteries.
Bioplastics
Researchers at University College Dublin blended 15 different biodegradable plastics together so they could function as commercial plastics and also be composted at home. They discovered that mixing Polylactic acid (PLA), which is not home-compostable, with polycaprolactone (PCL) created a material that degraded completely within 60 days under typical home-composting conditions. An article about the research is published in Environmental Science and Technology.
Researchers at South China University of Technology (SCUT) have developed a novel type of PVA bags that they claim can dissolve in cold water in minutes.
University of Amsterdam (UvA) spinoff Photanol is going to build a demonstration plant to produce chemicals from CO2 and sunlight. The demo plant is a step towards scaling up the production of organic acids which can be used in biodegradable plastics among other things.
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