SBIR Phase II: Production of Biopolymer Coatings for Paper Used in Foodservice Packaging

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will be (1) the reduction of traditional plastics in landfills and the environment, and (2) increased recycling of paper packaging by replacing plastics coatings in barrier paper food packaging with a biodegradable and natural material called PolyHydroxyAlkanoate (PHA). The PHA molecules are made from waste sources of methane and carbon dioxide produced by wastewater treatment plants, industrial composters, anerobic digestors, and landfills. There is an active need to create domestic PHA production capacity to match rising competition from South Korea, China, Japan, and Brazil. PHA polymers need to be produced cost competitively to traditional plastics, at similar scale and made available to processors and converters widely. The commercial applications for PHA are broad as the material can displace over 50% of all traditional plastics consumed annually. The proposed project will focus on developing the naturally occurring PHA-based coatings for barrier paper packaging used in food packaging. Current food paper packaging is functional and cost-effective, but it contains a thin layer of traditional plastics which prevent the paper packaging from being recycled, composted, or biodegraded. When leaked into the environment, these materials produce toxic microplastics. This project will use biogas-consuming microbes to produce fully biodegradable polymer coatings to replace the traditional plastics in single use barrier paper food packaging. The research goals are to observe and define critical parameters impacting yield and production efficiency before scaling up the production of PHA polymers to a pilot size plant. The pilot plant is sized to create commercially meaningful quantities of PHA. The main methods to be used are biochemical and molecular assays for determining kinetics of carbon conversion into PHA. The proposed activities will also advance the knowledge of gas infusion bioreactors and coating formulation science to bring PHA coatings to the market at market prices comparable to those from plastics. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.