Medium-chain-length poly-3-hydroxyalkanoates (MCL-PHAs) as biodegradable impact modifiers from renewable resources

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Medium-chain-length poly-3-hydroxyalkanoates (MCL-PHAs) are water-stable, biodegradable (in animal tissue), biocompatible (to animal tissue), readily compostable elastomers produced from renewable resources. MCL-PHAs would likely be widely used in industrial applications, if technical barriers had not hindered their production and consequently the development of commercial applications. Although MCL-PHAs are not commercially available, the Ramsay lab is now able to produce kg quantities of a broad range of MCL-PHAs. Other factors which limit MCL-PHA commercialization are its low melting point, its inability to form "compatible" blends with other bioplastics, and its high cost. Prof. Ramsay is developing processes to substantially reduce the cost of MCL-PHA production and has obtained funding from Xerox to produce MCL-PHAs with higher melting points as well as a more hydrophilic material that can be blended more easily with other bioplastics. Some of the most common environmentally degradable plastics produced from renewable resources such as short-chain-length poly-3-hydroxyalkanoates (SCL-PHAs) and polylactic acid (PLA) have limited usefulness because of their brittle nature. Commercially available impact modifiers that are typically used to solve such problems are not environmentally degradable and are not produced from renewable resources. Use of such impact modifiers would defeat the purpose of using PLAs and SCL-PHAs as environmentally friendly and sustainable replacements of conventional thermoplastics. MCL-PHAs, especially the ones being developed in the Xerox project, are ideally suited to fill this market niche. We propose to assess MCL-PHAs to act as impact modifiers for commercially produced PLA and SCL-PHA to produce polymer materials that are entirely bio-sourced and biodegradable. This will enable the more widespread use of MCL-PHAs and result in industrially useful materials that can potentially lead to the creation of new jobs in Canada. This project will provide interdisciplinary training for one MSc, one PhD, one undergraduate student and a Research Associate in polymer processing and fermentation technology.