Jan 24 2011
Biobent Polymers, a new division of global plastics manufacturer Univenture, today launched its Panacea family of bioplastics.
The new bio-composite is the industry's first bioplastic resin to maintain the characteristics of the base plastic material while replacing up to 40% of the petroleum normally used in plastics manufacturing. The award-winning technology behind Panacea was developed by Battelle Memorial Institute with funding from the Ohio Soybean Council, and licensed exclusively to Univenture, an innovative manufacturer of eco-friendly plastic packaging and products. The announcement was made by Keith Masavage, Chief of Strategy and Operations at Univenture.
The first two products which Biobent will offer, Panacea PP and Panacea PE, are polypropylene and polyethylene based products that will be priced competitively in the bioplastics market. Most bioplastics are significantly more expensive than their petroleum derived counterparts, but this will not be the case for the Panacea products. The innovative process used to make the Panacea line is capable of blending traditional thermoplastics with a low cost, unrefined agricultural co-product - soy meal. The net result is high performing bio-composite materials with a cost structure competitive with purely petroleum derived plastics.
"Panacea is the first line of bioplastics without traditional compromises," stated Mr. Masavage. He added that "Bioplastics have been on the market for decades but every material introduced to date has required sacrifices in performance or price, and often both. Only Panacea offers enhanced sustainability, high performance and a competitive price."
Funded by the Ohio Soybean Council, researchers at Battelle developed a patent pending process to combine soybean meal with "off the shelf" plastic resins. The resulting bio-composite replaces 10%-40% of the petroleum-based resin with low-cost agricultural co-products. This unique bio-composite was tested in Univenture's patented UniKeep binders, which were injection molded at its manufacturing facility in Marysville, Ohio. The successful production of UniKeep binders affirmed the commercial potential of this revolutionary technology. In late 2009 this innovation received a coveted R&D 100 Award. The R&D 100 Award was founded by R&D Magazine in 1963 to promote the 100 most technically innovative products developed each year, in applications as diverse as environmental sciences, energy devices, semiconductor, software, and communications.