An EU-funded research project has demonstrated how brewery waste can be converted into packaging materials, with partners saying the results could support industry efforts to meet new regulatory requirements.
The BioSupPack initiative brought together 18 organisations across the bioplastics supply chain, coordinated by Aimplas.
Over a five year period, the consortium developed and tested materials and processes based on polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), a family of bio-based, biodegradable polymers, including polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), a type of PHA suitable for rigid packaging, derived from brewery by-products.
The project, funded through the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking under the Horizon 2020 programme, the EU’s research and innovation funding scheme, aimed to show that waste streams such as spent grains can be used to produce alternatives to fossil-based plastics.
Industrial environments
Among the developments was a biorefinery process designed to convert brewery waste into PHB using plasma pretreatment and microbial fermentation. The consortium reported that the process reached a level suitable for testing in industrially relevant environments.
Other outputs included coatings based on PHA for use on paperboard and textiles, as well as fibre-based packaging formats with barrier properties intended to match conventional plastics.
The group also developed PHB-based materials for rigid applications such as bottles and retail displays, alongside prototype packaging for food and personal care products.
In addition, a sorting system was created to help separate these materials at end of life, enabling enzymatic recycling processes developed within the project.
‘A true circular economy’
The project’s coordinator Rosa González Leyba, who is also a senior researcher at Aimplas, said: “BioSupPack has demonstrated that we can create a true circular economy by turning brewery waste into valuable packaging materials and by recycling the packaging waste through innovative recycling technologies like enzymatic recycling.
“Our consortium has successfully scaled up innovative biorefinery processes and developed bio-based materials for rigid packaging for food and non-food applications, obtaining packaging prototypes that are very close to the current counterparts on the market.”
The work has been positioned in the context of the EU’s forthcoming Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, which will require all packaging to be recyclable by 2030.
The consortium said its technologies are designed to integrate with existing manufacturing systems, although wider adoption will depend on further scale up and commercial uptake.
The project concluded with an online event marking the end of its activities, with partners making the results available to companies across the packaging value chain, including material producers, converters and brand owners.
