Markets and Applications
Solutions across a broad range markets and applications
Applications development for CJ Biomaterials’ PHA products is an important part of our offering to the market. We maintain Applications teams on two continents.
There are many possible applications where PHA adds value to both performance properties and end-of-use options. The main markets include Food & Beverage Packaging, Food Serviceware, Fibers & Nonwovens, Consumer Goods, Agriculture & Horticulture and 3D Printing Filament. PHA and PHA-containing compounds can be used in traditional plastic manufacturing processes.
The following information provides basic background on CJ Biomaterials’ products developed for specific markets and end product applications. Our Applications Team is continually expanding our portfolio of products and applications. If you don’t find the application you are looking for here, please contact your CJ Biomaterials representative. Check back regularly for new product offerings.
Food & Beverage
Circular Solutions that Capture Consumer Attention
Packaging plays an essential role in the way we buy and consume our food and beverages today. It’s a sector that features continuing innovation with increasingly advanced technology used to support sophisticated goals. Every year, we see new concepts in food and beverage packaging that deliver convenience, hygiene, preservation and the consumer experience.
At the same time, plastics-based food and beverage packaging is often single-use and contributes to the plastic waste problem. It also complicates the food waste issue. Environmentally sound packaging is a key driver for consumer choice in today’s market.
CJ Biomaterials PHACT™ technology can play an important role in enhancing the environmental profile and the performance of a broad range of food and beverage flexible and rigid packaging types. From containers and bags to bottles and coatings, certified food-safe PHA technology can function alone or in combination with other biopolymers to help usher in the next generation of food and beverage products.
Food Service / Serviceware
Convenience Without the Consequences
The convenience of food serviceware makes it a part of our everyday life. Unfortunately, it has also become a part of our everyday landscape.
CJ Biomaterials PHACT™ technology can help deliver that convenience without the consequences of the environmental threat. Today, we are working across a broad range of serviceware applications – from trays, straws and containers to coatings to enhance the functionality and environmental performance of paper products.
With the ability to be composted with food waste, our PHA can minimize the burden on the environment and even benefit the environment by converting organic waste into useful soil amendments through industrial composting.
Personal Care / Home Care
A Circular World of Performance Properties
Advanced fiber and nonwoven materials are helping to revolutionize the manufacturing landscape because of their advanced performance properties, application flexibility and cost-in-use. At the same time, products such as diapers, feminine hygiene products and masks are not reusable, difficult to recycle after use and end up in landfills or incineration facilities.
Fibers and nonwovens made with PHACT™ are biodegradable and compostable – and they offer excellent performance properties in the manufacturing environment. They can be modified to deliver anything from high strength to a soft touch – safely. This makes them suitable for a broad range of end-use applications.
Consumer Goods
Reducing the Burden on Our Environment
The processability, durability, light weight and low cost-in-use of petroleum-based plastics have made them a major component in almost every consumer product we buy today – whether we realize it or not. These products – especially when they are composites – are particularly difficult to recycle effectively. The answer lies in replacing petroleum-based plastics in consumer goods with more environmentally friendly alternatives.
CJ Biomaterials PHACT™ technology – alone or as part of a compound – offers biodegradability and compostability and puts a lower burden on the environment. These materials can be used in a broad range of manufacturing environments and can deliver both form and function in applications from cosmetic packaging to housewares.
Agriculture & Compost
Taking the Farm Closer to Nature
Farms and gardens are thought by most of us to be natural environments. But many of the technologies that we use to improve productivity in these locales pose environmental threats. Even organic farms in the United States may use petroleum-based mulch films that end up being disposed of in landfills at the end of the growing season.
Using PHA technology in agriculture has many benefits such as minimizing carbon footprint and reducing plastic waste. Today, we can make products like mulch films, plant and flowerpots and plant clips that comply with the restrictions and regulations of the US Department of Agriculture and the US National Organic Program. They offer excellent performance and degrade more quickly, creating a truly circular system on the farm.
3D Printing Filaments
Next-Gen Technology for Next-Gen Technology
Fast-growing 3D Printing markets are seeking alternatives and new solutions to today’s petroleum-based 3D Printing filaments in order to achieve plastic reduction. As a bio-based material, polylactic acid (PLA) is a more sustainable thermoplastic and has become one of the most widely used plastics in the 3D Printing additive manufacturing sector.
In 3D printing applications when PHACT™ amorphous PHA is added to PLA, the finished article not only maintains the sustainable nature of PLA but reduces the brittleness of PLA filament, making it more durable.
Today, CJ Biomaterials is also developing 3D printing filament made entirely from PHACT PHA technology that has a soft touch and interesting haptics. It is also 100% bio-based and biodegradable, contributing to consumer brands’ sustainability goals.
