R&D

During the years 1993-1995 prof. Alexy came up with an idea how to connect his relationship to nature and his profession of polymer chemist – researcher and technologist. In spite of the fact that,   at the time, the plastic pollution was not as alarming as today, it was clear that the rapid growth  of plastics production was going to bring problems related to the presence of  highly stable plastic materials in the environment.

After coming to Faculty of chemical and food technology in 1997, he founded – together with prof. Bakos – a research group focused on biodegradable plastics, working under the dept. of Plastic, rubber and fibres of Institute of natural and synthetic polymers. The group was continuously growing, mainly joined by PhD. students interested in biodegradable plastics.  Over the years, the group was more and more focused not only  on biodegradable plastics but also on those based on renewable raw materials.

Development is still moving forward. The ambition of our whole team in not only to develop ecological bioplastics production, , but  to offer a system, which will be able to contribute to  utilisation of bioplastic waste  in the most right manner – by biodegradation.

Our goal:

• Replacing as much single-use plastics packaging with reusable biodegradable materials based on Nonoilen as possible
• Reducing plastic waste thanks to introduction of material recycling which is possible with Nonoilen (in contrast to other bioplastics which are not recyclable usually)
• Comprehensive solution of Nonoilen products life cycle in closed loop system for waste recovery without any harmful effects on the environment
• Continuously extending application segment of Nonoilen in technical applications, automotive, medicine, gastronomy, 3D printing and others
• Using waste products from other industrial segments as raw material for Nonoilen production
• Development of cooperation between academic and industrial sectors.