Nénu2phar: European PHA project
Elixance, alongside 16 European companies and research organizations, is involved in the Nenu2phar project. The aim of this 4-year project is to provide a competitive response to the needs of plastic product manufacturers in Europe, by developing a range of PHA-based eco-designed products for single-use applications (food and cosmetics packaging) or applications that are difficult to recycle because of their multi-layer composition or collection (3D printing filament, textiles for agriculture and the medical sector).
Thanks to an innovative PHA production value chain, the project aims to offer a biosourced and biodegradable material for each of these applications.
Our role
As specialists in the implementation and formulation of materials, we receive the project’s PHB in its native form, and based on the work and needs of our partners, we formulate it to suit the different applications.
We are also developing PHA-based formulations for 3D printing. Our aim is to offer a flexible filament, equivalent to TPE, and a rigid filament, equivalent to PLA.
Finally, we coordinate the technical centres and industrial partners in order to produce prototypes for each finished product and ensure that they are scaled up.
What is PHA?
PHAs are a family of polymers produced by bacteria that accumulate them as reserve molecules. PHAs are obtained from substrates such as sugars or oils. More specifically, in the case of the PHAs produced by the Nénu 2phar project, the micro-algae from which the substrates are derived capture CO2 via photosynthesis.
These groups of polymers are biodegradable (depending on the conditions in which the material is found), which represent a renewable resource and alternative to petroplastics, and have less impact on the environment.
