Sustainable with plastic?!

Press release | Potsdam, 29.10.2020 – Plastics have become an indispensable part of everyday life. Almost every product we use every day contains plastics: in the breathable clothing we put on in the morning, in the car we drive to work or in the packaging for lunch – the list goes on and on. Plastics have many practical properties: they are light, unbreakable, versatile, variable in properties and function and can even be produced entirely from renewable raw materials.

In Germany alone, 18.2 million tons of plastic were produced in 2019, according to a survey by the Federal Statistical Office. The share of recycled material in the production of new plastic is currently still low. A study by “DIE ZEIT” has shown that in 2018 only eight percent of newly produced plastic was made from recyclable material (cf. Statista). “It is much cheaper to produce new petroleum-based plastics than to recycle material that has already been used,” explains Prof. Dr. Alexander Böker, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP. “The incentive for manufacturers to resort to more sustainable alternatives is therefore not yet very high.”

New T-shirt made from old jeans – recycling for mass production

Something new can still be created from old plastic. A research team from the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP in the Potsdam Science Park has developed a process that can be used to recycle clothing. This is because standard jeans or T-shirts are usually not made of pure cotton, but of a blend of interwoven fibers of cotton and plastics such as polyester. The separation of these fibers has not been technically possible until now. The researchers have now succeeded in processing pulp from recycled cotton into a viscose filament yarn that is even suitable for mass production.

“The production of clothing requires vast amounts of resources, chemicals and water, while worn clothing usually ends up directly in the landfill. With our new process, a viscose filament yarn can be made from old clothing made from cotton and thus a textile can be used several times. For the fashion industry, this is a big step towards sustainability,” explains Böker. The viscose filament yarn has another advantage: Since it is made of pure cellulose, it could decompose completely in the environment even if disposed of improperly and would thus be returned to the natural material cycle instead of polluting the world’s oceans as microplastics. In the Fraunhofer Cluster “Circular Plastics Economy”, which deals with the topic of the circular economy of plastics, researchers are working together on sensible and effective ways to consume fewer resources, reduce energy consumption and reduce the number of energy consumption.

Bio-based carbon fibers for more sustainability in lightweight construction

The fact that sustainability also plays a major role in lightweight construction is shown by the research of Dr. Jens Erdmann at Fraunhofer IAP. On behalf of the Finnish-Swedish forestry group Stora Enso, he and his colleagues are researching and developing a process to produce a competitive carbon fiber from the components of trees – i.e. from renewable raw materials.

Carbon fibers are very light, but at the same time very strong and stiff, making them ideal for lightweight construction. They can therefore be found in aircraft, cars, sports equipment or wind turbines, among other things. The disadvantage: over 95% of the carbon fibers produced worldwide are made of petroleum-based polyacrylonitrile (PAN).

“For almost fifty years, scientists have been working to develop a competitive carbon fiber from biogenic raw materials such as cellulose or lignin, which are obtained from trees. There has never been a breakthrough. We have now achieved this,” says Erdmann. If the two natural raw materials cellulose and lignin are combined correctly and converted into carbon fiber, they have comparable positive properties to petroleum-based carbon fibers. “Manufacturers and users of carbon fibers are also coming under increasing pressure to produce more sustainably in view of the climate debate. One solution is our bio-based carbon fibers. This driving force can accelerate the development towards industrial mass production,” explains Erdmann.

Biodegradable splint for bone fractures

Not only in lightweight construction, but also in medical technology, renewable raw materials are increasingly being used. The team led by Helmut Remde, Head of the Processing Technology Center at Fraunhofer IAP, has developed a compostable splint from the bio-based plastic polylactic acid, or PLA for short, for immobilizing limbs in the event of bone fractures. “The development was not easy, as we placed high demands on the material. To ensure that the splint can be attached quickly and easily to the affected area, the material must only remain deformable for half a minute to three minutes, for example, and must then become hard and stable at body temperature. In addition, the shape must also be able to be readjusted several times if necessary to ensure a perfect adaptation to the injured part of the body,” Remde sums up the challenge.

The research team implemented these requirements with the bioplastic PLA. PLA, also known as polyactide or polylactic acid, is formed by polymerization of lactic acid. This, in turn, is a product of the fermentation of sugar and starch by lactic acid bacteria. The usual synthetic cast dressings are made of plastic and glass fiber fabric and are therefore insensitive, but not reusable: they generate over 150 tons of waste per year. The new “RECAST rail”, on the other hand, can be recycled in industrial compost. In this way, the biodegradable rail saves 80% waste.

Examples like these show that it is possible to recycle, reuse or directly sustainably produce plastics in a meaningful way. Some of the new processes developed in research are already suitable for industrial mass production. The research of the institutes in the Potsdam Science Park is continuously producing further drastic innovations that advance new findings on sustainable materials.

About the Potsdam Science Park

The Potsdam Science Park is one of the largest and most exciting science locations in the capital region of Berlin-Brandenburg. On a total area of 60 hectares, there are two Fraunhofer Institutes, three Max Planck Institutes, the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences and the Faculty of Human Sciences at the University of Potsdam, the technology and start-up center GO:IN with numerous start-ups and companies, as well as the Fraunhofer Conference Center and the Brandenburg State Archive.

Here, cutting-edge international research, university education as well as research-oriented start-ups and companies combine to form an excellent community. Networking and mutual exchange between renowned research institutions and innovative companies are the focus of the Potsdam Science Park. The 10-hectare Technology Campus will open up further areas for the settlement of companies. Over the next ten years, 100 small and medium-sized enterprises and one anchor company are to settle in the Potsdam Science Park and around 1000 new jobs are to be created.

Press

Karen Esser
Referentin PR & Kommunikation
Tel. +49 (0)331 237 351 103
karen.esser@potsdam-sciencepark.de

Standortmanagement Golm GmbH is funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the State of Brandenburg and the City of Potsdam.
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