NatureWorks polymerises high-purity lactic acid fermented from corn dextrose (a fermentable sugar) to make about 15 different commercial grades of PLA resin.   

According to NatureWorks Managing Director Asia Pacific Peter Clydesdale, who recently visited Australia, the company’s proprietary technology can process PLA from any fermentable sugar source.

“We aim to use our innovative approach of making nature-based plastics from fermentable plant sugars as a more sustainable supply alternative long term to oil-based plastics,” Clydesdale tells Packaging Magazine. 

“This approach addresses growing concerns around energy security and climate change, as does our ongoing quest to achieve a ‘zero waste’ vision for the future in our current manufacturing processes.”
 
“Long term, we hope to utilise more agricultural (ie lignin-rich, cellulosic) waste as a raw material source,” he adds.

NatureWworks LLC was established in 1997 as a global joint venture between Cargill Inc in the US, and Dow Chemical company. 

An investment of several hundred million US dollars enabled the development of an extensive patent position to protect the science behind the company’s technology.  

In October of 2007 it  became a 50/50 joint venture between Cargill and Teijin Ltd of Japan.  

NatureWorks became interested in the use of annually renewable resources to make packaging products through Cargill’s early involvement in the PLA business.

“In looking at new uses for corn in the late 1980’s, it was Cargill’s R&D group that discovered a way to make high-purity lactic acid and polymerise such into PLA on a commercial scale,” Clydesadale says.

“This led to Cargill and Dow Chemical building the world’s first scale-based PLA plant in Blair, Nebraska, US, UK starting in 1998."

NatureWorks resin is marketed using the ‘Ingeo’ trademark to distinguish it from other sources of PLA resin. 

“This is important, as only Ingeo™ biopolymer, not generic PLA resin, has received food contact approvals, composting certifications and peer-reviewed LCA acceptance from around the world,” Clydesdale emphasises. 

“Commercial grades offered are best suited for extrusion-thermoformed, biaxially-oriented (film), injection molded, ISBM (short shelf-life bottles), fiber spun and (cold use) foam products.”

According to Clydesdale, demand for Ingeo is growing fast. 

“Our business has grown considerably since 2005 to reflect the rising global importance of saving energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions to governments, brands, product manufactures and consumers alike,” he says.    

To illustrate the point, Clydesdale points to a recent poll by GlobeScan reports which finds that 65 per cent of Americans believe climate change will directly threaten them and their families.

“As another example, a British-based public opinion website reports that people around the world are willing to pay higher prices to fight climate change,” Clydesdale says.

“I believe biodegradable and bio-based plastics represent one of the most outstanding innovations for the required sustainable development.”  

According to NatureWorks’ peer reviewed Life Cycle Assessment research, Ingeo biopolymers use 67 per cent fewer fossil fuel inputs compared with traditional aPET.

“If 114,000,000 aPET trays were replaced by the same number of PLA trays, there would be a saving of  30,150,000 kilowatt hours and 5,434 mega tonnes of greenhouse gases,” Clydesdale says.

“That’s an estimated energy saving equivalent of 3,000,000 litres of petrol in one year, or the elimination of the CO2 emissions from driving a car 23,000,000 km.”  

Clydesdale is proud of the growing range of products utilising Inego and the improvements constantly being made to its performance.

“Most Ingeo™ biopolymer-based product use is in single-use, disposable segments today, but many companies, including NatureWorks LLC, are increasingly improving the performance attributes of our polymer to make it more suitable for use in semi-durable and durable product segments,” he says. 

“Examples of the former include non-woven products (wet and dry wipes) and carpeting."
 
"Examples of the latter include component parts used in automotive like fabric liner, injection molded parts for the car interior, consumer electronic like laptop or cell phone casings, battery packs, refrigerator liners, gift  loyalty cards and household goods like shampoo, lotion bottles and decorative wallpaper.”

“In addition, many outside companies today are blending Ingeo with non-PLA materials, using additives, or adopting co-extrusion techniques to improve the properties of our base (ie unmodified) resin,” Clydesdale says. 

“NatureWorks LLC is also working hard on a number of 2nd generation Ingeo™ biopolymer products to take to market in the coming 12-24 months.”

“The ‘second generation’ of NatureWorks’ bio polymer grades for injection molded products is being targeted at durable goods for use within a three year horizon,” Clydesdale says.

“Its properties will be similar to HIPS or ABS, but with a lower HDT.  Targeted mainly at cosmetics, low demanding appliances and consumer electronics, the new biopolymer will likely require similar processing to an ABS-type resin."
 
"We envisage sales spilling over into higher value differentiated consumer product applications for faster commercialisation over time.”

“A few emerging bio-plastic products, such as Arkema’s castor plant-based nylon 11 bio-plastic, are being designed for specific use in durable product (in Arkema’s case, the auto) segments,” Clydesdale adds. 

“Most are not yet commercially available, and as such, remain relatively expensive raw material options.” 

Clydesdale is coy about strategic opportunities for NatureWorks, since Cargill has a new investor from Japan involved in the business.

“It would be premature for me to talk in detail about this point,” he says. 

“Right now we are expanding polymer capacity at our Blair, NE facility, and should be in a position to double our effective resin supply rate starting in 2009." 

"Longer term, our interest is in supporting PLA plants in different regions, as our customers today are all over the globe and supply options closer to home are an important desire for many.”

Clydesdale says NatureWorks aims to spotlight corporate, consumer, and government concerns about environmental and oil security issues that have helped accelerate market adoption of its products and secure value for renewable resource-based polymers like Ingeo biopolymer.
 
“Our value proposition is to create differentiation for brand owners and retailers at the point of sale, and to use co-branding to deliver a consistent consumer message,” he says.

“We intend to continue the process of expanding its Ingeo biopolymer’s application breadth, driving market penetration and leveraging customer and supplier networks to enhance the development of our product capabilities.”  

Despite the promise of biopolymers like Ingeo, Clydesdale says the immaturity of the industry compared to traditional oil-based plastic resin segments such as PVC, PET and PP is a challenge.

“Product performance and cost attributes are still not competitive with some oil-based plastics, which have been around for decades,” he explains, “and supporting supply chains are still being established."

As more bio-plastic suppliers and their supply chain partners reach scale economies, however, the cost spread will continue to narrow.”

“More product and application development work will help make bio-plastic alternatives more performance oriented to specific end uses, which, for most polymer products, have taken years (often decades) to perfect." 

"Greater market-based critical mass will also enable new end-of-life options – such as bio-plastic recycling either mechanical or chemical, to come into existence to support widespread consumer use of these new, bio-based materials.”

Clydesdale says an additional challenge includes the emergence of issues such as the use of genetically modified (GM) food crops in bio-plastics production chains. 

“NatureWorks is working with stakeholders to address such issues, but cannot make wholesale changes on a global scale as these issues require a much greater level of cross-border government cooperation in order to address properly,” he asserts. 

“Suffice it to say that NatureWorks does not gain any advantage from using GM crops to make Ingeo™ biopolymer, and that our ultimate long-term goal, as stated earlier, is to shift towards using cellulosic feedstock from agriculture waste as a starting raw material as our technology improves.”

In terms of a future for biopolymers, Clydesdale is philosophical.

“Ours is a journey, not an end point,” he says. 

“It is easy to highlight problems and throw obstacles in the way of further change, but we at NatureWorks are only part of the way to where ultimately we want to go."

"Further stakeholder support is necessary so as not to undercut the innovative work still required to solve energy security, climate change, resource sustainability and other related problems globally.”

“NatureWorks LLC is just one small part of the larger quest to achieve a more sustainable global balance, and constructive feedback on how we can partner to improve upon accelerate this journey is welcome.”

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