Mechanical recycling of polyhydroxyalkanoates for food contact applications
Résumé
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are gaining increasing interest in the biopolymer market due to their
promising properties such as biodegradability in natural madia, biocompatibility and vesatility of
processing.. PHAs offer potential sustainable substitutes for oil-based thermoplastics, particularly in the
packaging sector which represents 40% of plastic demand. However, their high production costs, mainly
due to the high raw material prices, is still limiting their industrialization. Mechanical recycling, a thermo-
mechanical eco-friendly process is able to reduce PHA’s cost, by extending the material life. For food
contact applications, beyound the reprocessing (reshaping) of the material, it is mandatory to go through a
decontamination step that guarentees the safety of the recyclates. [1]. Multi-reprocessing of PHA does not
appear to affect its properties [2, 3]. However the decontamination efficiency of PHA, and its impact on the
properties of recyclates , has never been evaluated so far.
The objective of this work is to study the opportunities and limitations of potential mechanical recycling
of PHA for food contact application. reprocessing and decontamination steps were studied separately, in
order to evaluate their respective impacts on the recycled polymer quality. First, decontamination was
performed at different time/temperature couples, using a wide rage of polar and non-polar surrogates.
The decontamination efficiency was compared to food safety assessment.