PLA – plant the future!
CASE STUDY
Submission from Corbion
The innovation.
Advancements in technology have allowed us to transform natural resources into innovative products, such as sugarcane to produce plastic! Called a ‘bioplastic’, this refers to a group of plastics which are bio-based, biodegradable or both. Polylactic acid (PLA) is one of the few bioplastics that is both biobased and biodegradable. PLA uses sugarcane as feedstock, providing a more sustainable alternative to traditional fossil feedstocks widely used for plastics production. PLA is produced at industrial scale using a highly integrated process from sugar to plastic.
Planting sugarcane is the starting point for TotalEnergies Corbion’s Luminy® PLA production. After growing and harvesting the sugarcane, it is brought to a sugar mill to extract the sugar. The sugar obtained is then fermented using microorganisms to produce lactic acid, an organic acid also produced by the human body. The lactic acid is then converted into PLA, a biopolymer that manufacturers can use in multiple applications.
The benefits.
The production of biobased Luminy® PLA has a 75% reduced carbon footprint, including biogenic carbon, compared to conventional plastics. This peer reviewed LCA analyses contains a more detailed overview of the global warming potential and of how Luminy® PLA performs in other environmental impact categories such as carbon footprint, water footprint and direct land use change. The sugarcane crops absorb carbon from the atmosphere while growing and store it in their biomass. It is called biogenic carbon. This carbon is then transferred to the value chain to end up in the PLA final product. When incinerating the PLA plastic product, this biogenic carbon will be released back into the atmosphere, making the process neutral.
The use of biobased bioplastics reduces dependency on fossil fuels and supports a circular, local-for-local economy thanks to the multiple end-of-life options. Luminy® PLA is a certified 100% biobased polymer that can be used in many applications replacing conventional plastics, ranging from packaging to durable goods and nonwovens.
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