Green Biotechnology: Bioplastics

Title:	Green Biotechnology: Bioplastics
Category:	Miscellaneous
Date:	14. Apr. 2009, 16:00 -
Venue:	Eawag Dübendorf
	Forum Chriesbach D24
Speaker:	Manfred Zinn, Empa, Laboratory for Biomaterials, St. Gallen
Download:	as calendar event

The market for biodegradable plastics is growing annually by more than 20% and reached in 2008 ca. 260’000 t/y which is less than 1% of the global petrol-based plastics production. Many different biooplastics are being developed for particular applications in packaging industry, agriculture but also for medical applications. The talk will cover the international developments of this fast growing market and will also go into some aspects of a biopolymer produced at Empa St. Gallen: Poly(3-hydroxyalkanoate) (PHA). Besides the biotechnological production of this biopolyester, the processing and applications of PHA will be discussed.