Japanese chemicals group Mitsui Chemicals has made a minority investment in Canadian start-up Materia Bioworks as part of a move to utilise artificial intelligence (AI) to expand the supply of its bioplastics materials to customers globally.
Materia Bioworks, established in Toronto, Ontario in 2023, is behind an AI-powered sustainable materials and product design platform.
The system, known as MAPS (Material Application Prediction System), uses computational chemistry and AI to design and formulate sustainable materials, such as bioplastics, in stages.
By utilising biomass materials in Materia Bioworks’ bioplastics design services, Mitsui Chemicals aims to expand its provision of bioplastics materials offering to customers globally, the Tokyo-based business said.
Product design platform
MAPS offers a number of functions. Through the platform, bioplastics and other sustainable materials are formulated to meet target performance specifications, including thermal properties, mechanical properties, permeability and physical properties with AI suggesting optimal formulations and material designs.
It also enables customer production lines to be simulated using digital twin technology, and advice on optimal manufacturing conditions is provided.
With the help of MAPS, customers are connected with verified bioplastics suppliers through a proprietary marketplace network.
By leveraging a proprietary database of biomaterials and biodegradable materials, the platform can also support companies in obtaining approvals for bioplastics in compliance with regulations in various countries.
Potential NPD benefits
Mitsui Chemicals said these features could be harnessed to streamline product development using bioplastics, and would reduce traditionally lengthy development times and costs, alongside ‘driving down the cost of bioplastics themselves’.
Furthermore, Mitsui said it would collaborate with Materia Bioworks to ‘meet the performance and quality requirements of customers through the possible joint development of new bioplastics materials’.
