BioMide - bio produced nylon to enable recyclable mulitlayer film packaging

柔性塑料包装(薄膜)目前大部分是不可回收的，主要是由于薄膜的多层结构，以保持阻隔性能，以保持食品的新鲜。使用的主要组件之一是尼龙(PA)材料，它充当气体屏障，夹在聚乙烯(PE)之间。虽然这种PA层有助于减少食物浪费(将食物寿命从3天延长到26天)，但它也使薄膜无法回收。PA也是从化石燃料来源生产的，需要前驱体化学物质，如己二酸，这些化学物质污染严重，产生大量二氧化碳和N02。Impact已经找到了一种方法，可以从藻类中开发出一种生物尼龙-BioMide。这种材料是从生物、可再生资源中生产的，能够在生物反应器中种植，从而消除了取代农田的需要。与传统的生物过程不同，该过程不需要发酵，因此该过程是碳负的。生产的材料具有与传统PA相同的性能，另外一个好处是它们可以在当前的回收过程中被生物降解，允许多层PE-PA膜以与单层PE膜相同的方法回收。这不仅有可能抵消释放到环境中的大量碳，而且使超过4Mt的未回收膜很容易和容易地回收，而不需要任何额外的回收基础设施。

Flexible plastic packaging (films) is currently in the most part unrecyclable, mainly due to the multi layer construction of films, in order to retain barrier properties to keep food fresh. One of the main components used is a nylon (PA) material which acts as a gas barrier, sandwiched between Polyethylene (PE). While this PA layer helps reduce food waste (extending food life from 3 days to up-to 26 days), it also renders the film unrecyclable.PA is also produced from a fossil fuel sources, and requires precurrosor chemicals such as adipic acid which are highly polluting, with large amounts of CO2 and N02 produced as a result.Impact have identified a method to develop a bioNylon - BioMide - from algae. The material is produced from a bio, renewable source, and able to be grown in bioreactors negating the need to displace agricultural land. Unlike traditional bio processes there is no fermentation requirement and the process is therefore carbon negative. The material produced has the same properties as conventional PA, with the added benefit that they can be biodegraded during the current recycling process, allowing a multi layer PE-PA film to be recycled in the same method as a single layer PE film.This has the potential to not only offset large amounts of carbon released into the environment, but also make over 4Mt of unrecycled film easily and readily recyclable, without the need for any additional recycling infrastructure.