By Patrick Burles - @PatrickBurles on Twitter

Federal investment of $1-million supports biodegradable plastic research at U of L

Sep 28, 2018 | 2:10 PM

LETHBRIDGE – A partnership between the University of Lethbridge and Flexahopper Plastics Ltd. to develop biodegradable plastics without using fossil fuels is moving forward, after receiving a $1-million investment from Western Economic Diversification Canada.

It will go towards the Green Polymer and Technology Centre, which will be housed in the new Science and Academic Building at the university.

At the moment, most plastics are made from polyethylene, which is made from fossil fuel feedstocks and by-products of natural gas, and also requires heat from fossil fuels to process. Adding to the problem, says Dr. Paul Hazendonk, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the U of L, is the fact that a lot of those plastics then end up on our oceans.

“The solution would be to have a biodegradable plastic, and such plastics are available from Mother Nature – actually, from cornstarch,” explained Hazendonk, following the investment announcement Friday, Sept. 28. “The problem is the properties of these plastics are not really amenable to the methods of manufacturing that we use today.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day,” he continued. “For the polyethylene this took decades to develop, and it’s going to take, probably, decades to develop as well for polylactic acid.”

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In addition to meeting the challenge of replacing the versatility of plastics made from polyethylene, Hazendonk noted that another key part of the research is on determining a way to reduce upfront costs for businesses, making biodegradable plastics more economically appealing. With an eye to the future however, he believes that will be easier to do.

“In the long-term arc, the cost of the fossil fuel inputs are going to rise,” said Hazendonk. “I mean, oil and gas prices are unstable, but they are in an upward arc, if you look back 20, 30 years. And so, by the time this technology is going to mature, I don’t think the price differential will be that large, if at all, maybe the actual biological feedstocks could be significantly cheaper.”

The partnership came about when Dr. Farhad Faghihi, director of research and development at Flexahopper and a former doctoral student of Hazendonk’s, pitched the idea to company president, Bill Spenceley. Flexahopper is based in Lethbridge, processing plastics for the aerospace, oil and gas, agriculture, and food-processing markets.

“We’ve been doing research for the last couple of years and you’re limited when you’ve got a smaller business, whereas, we’ve been able to leverage the university’s resources on this one,” said Spenceley. “Some of the equipment that we’re bringing in from the Western Diversification funding, is incredibly helpful in that search.”

Spenceley also built upon some of the things they will be looking for in the research effort.

“We’re looking at, for instance, cradle to grave programs for products today. I mean, we always hear about the ocean, the issue with plastics floating – we’ve got to look at ways that some of these plastics are disposed of, how they’re maybe produced from feedstocks that don’t include more pollution. So, I think this is a laborious research effort, but I think working with the university is going to make it exhilarate a lot more,” he explained.

“A lot of times you see academia sort of as one division, you see private sector as another – they don’t really seem to mesh very well together,” said Spenceley. “It’s great that I’m a former student from this university – there’s a lot more trust factor on this. And I think that you’re seeing a lot more universities are trying to adopt these type of collaborative research efforts and it’s really important that they kind of pool their resources.”