Spain's Technological Institute of Plastics (Aimplas) is developing a fully-biodegradable plastic produced from wheat straw for applications in the manufacturing of white goods and electronic equipment.
Aimplas is coordinating the Bugworkers project, involving a total of 15 European partners, which amongst other things is looking at using cellulose nanofibers extracted from wheat straw as a reinforcement.
So far, the partners involved in Bugworkers have achieved good results in terms of process efficiency and are therefore taking the process to an industrial scale.
"We need a high yield in the bioplastic synthesis process using bacteria before we are able to speak of a cost competitive product but we are getting very positive results in Bugworkers with regards to this," said Ana Espert, technical coordinator at Aimplas.