SBIR Phase II: High performance biodegradable sandwich core structures

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project will be the development and demonstration of a new manufacturing technology for lightweight bio-based plastics. Plastic produced from plant materials can have lower environmental impact than petroleum-based plastics, but price and performance issues have limited their adoption. In Phase I, Grow Plastics demonstrated the ability to produce lightweight, low cost, thermally stable 100% bio-based packaging products. In Phase II, Grow Plastics will continue the development of its products while also working to develop a full-scale manufacturing line. The goal of the technology is to replace billions of pounds of petroleum-based plastic with a lower density plastic requiring half as much material, which is made from plants. This SBIR Phase II research project proposes to continue the development of a new manufacturing process for layered structures in biomaterials. Grow Plastics has demonstrated the ability to generate novel, high-performance layered cellular structures in biopolymers in a new manufacturing process using new machinery. The challenge in Phase II will be to continue the development in materials from Phase I while also scaling the technology to industrial scale. Materials science and manufacturing techniques will include polymer blending, solid state foaming, and thermal crystallization of polymer blends. Analysis techniques will include tensile testing, differential scanning calorimetry, thermo mechanical analysis, and evaluation of final product properties.