23 Sep 2024

Receives 15 Million SEK: Creating Biodegradable Plastic from Algae

The Waste2Plastic project at Umeå University has been awarded 15 million SEK by the Swedish Energy Agency and its industrial partners to produce biodegradable plastic (PHA) using microalgae. These algae are cultivated in wastewater in Umeå, converting carbon dioxide from flue gases into biomass.

“The biomass will then be fed to bacteria that create plastic for lamps and packaging. We are moving towards a sustainable bioplastics industry,” says Christiane Funk, project leader at the Department of Chemistry.

Historically, plastic development has been almost exclusively fossil-based due to favorable prices and the availability of fossil raw materials. Over the past 50 years, annual global production has surged from 1.5 million tons to over 395 million tons. Most fossil-based plastics end up in landfills – only about 9 percent are recycled, 12 percent are incinerated, and the remaining 79 percent slowly degrade over hundreds of years.

“Bio-based plastics, generated from renewable resources, can play an important role in the circular economy by avoiding the use of fossil fuels. They also introduce new methods for degradation or recycling and involve less toxic chemicals in the manufacturing stages,” says Professor Christiane Funk.

She continues:

“Biodegradable plastics have been proposed as a substitute to meet future plastic needs, but in 2022, bioplastics accounted for only 1 percent of the world’s plastic production. One of the biggest challenges for the commercialization of biodegradable plastics is their high production costs compared to petrochemical-derived plastics.”

Local Algae

The Waste2Plastic project aims to reduce the carbon footprint by using local strains of Nordic microalgae as raw material, which decreases the consumption of fossil fuels in bioplastic production and makes the plastics biodegradable.

The algae are grown in industrial and municipal wastewater in Umeå (in collaboration with Vakin and Umeå Energi), where they perform photosynthesis and convert carbon dioxide from flue gases into biomass. This biomass is then fed to PHA-producing bacteria, which sustainably produce plastic.

Cultivating microalgae has several positive effects. Carbon dioxide is removed from flue gases, helping to mitigate climate change immediately. Microalgae actively remove pollutants in the wastewater recycling process, and microalgae biomass is a renewable source that does not require expensive materials, nutrients, or arable land.

“Projects like ours will pave the way for the creation of a sustainable bioplastics industry,” says Christiane Funk.

Click here to read more about creating biodegradable plastic from algae!

Text: Umeå University
Image: Christiane Funk