Bioplastech
Bioplastech is an Irish SME with patented technology for the manufacture and processing of a range of biodegradable and biocompatible polymers from sustainable and waste resources.
Bioplastech is also a product developer and solutions provider. Key to the company’s success to date has been the production of biopolymers known as medium chain length polyhydroxyalkanoate (mclPHA). These mclPHAs are elastomers and are more flexible than any other PHA-polymers currently on the market. They are fully bio-degradable and ideal for commodity and packaging applications as adhesives. They can also be used in their pure form for medical devices or as blends or additives to enhance flexibility and strength of other polymers. Bioplastech also has extensive knowhow in the production and purification of short chain length polyhydroxyalkanoates (sclPHAs).  Bioplastech has developed several blends and composites of both sclPHA and mclPHA and has significant know-how on the blending of these polymers with other polymers both traditional petrochemical and other biodegradable polymers.

Role in the project
In the BIOMAPS project, Bioplastech is leader for WP2 (PHA development and production).  As part of this work package, Bioplastech will develop bioprocesses for the production of vitrimerizable PHAs and then scale these processes to produce polymers for use in other work packages.  Bioplastech will also contribute to WP7 by taking enzymatically degraded PHA products and using them as substrates for growth and PHA production in Pseudomonas, demonstrating process circularity