Canada-based biotechnology company Genecis Bioindustries has announced a new collaboration with Helian Polymers, a Dutch supplier of colour masterbatch solutions and compounds and additives for biopolymers. The two companies will work together to create new materials solutions based on the PHA family of materials.
Genecis has developed technology that enables food and other organic waste waste to be converted into high value PHA materials. The rapid scaling model created by the company, a graduate of the Y Combinator incubator program in Silicon Valley and recipient of multi-million government grants, allows a high throughput production capacity to be achieved by adding the technology onto biogas plants. The company is currently expanding into the EU.
Helian Polymers has close to 15 years of experience with biopolymers, including PHA. In response to, among others, increased regulatory pressure and the ever-more explicit negative attitudes towards plastics, Helian Polymers recently combined this expertise under the umbrella of a new brand called PHAradox, launched in the summer of 2021.
PHAs have a potentially large design space and corresponding range of application options, if properly formulated. PHAradox is specialised in finetuning PHA formulations, developing customised PHA blends to match specific customer needs.
Helian is a sister company of colorFabb, a leading European 3D Printing company that pioneered the development of PHA and PLA/PHA blended filaments.
Under the new partnership, the companies will develop compounds based on the PHA materials produced by Genecis targeted at applications ranging from 3D printing filaments to biomedical solutions.
Working together, maximum benefit will be derived from both companies’ strengths, paving the way for the development of new formulations that are biobased and biodegradable, yet offer properties that approach those of conventional, fossil-based plastics.