For a plastic material without a drop of petroleum, think tomato skin. For the insulation and comfort of your car, linen is an ally. And in a beauty cream, even a road tar, wood cellulose works wonders. The development of innovative materials derived from plants, recyclable or biodegradable, raises the hope of eventually replacing molecules derived from petrochemical products that emit CO2, underline researchers from the French institute Inrae, a world leader in the fields of environmental transition.
On the laboratory table, Bénédicte Bakan, research director at Inrae, lines up small vials: tomato concentrate, dehydrated tomato skin, tomato monomer. At the end of the row appears a square with the appearance of translucent red rubber, which retains its two main properties of tomato skin: waterproof and flexible.
“Waste from the food industry can be used perfectly”, explains the researcher. From the cuticle not used by the tomato sauce industry, “we know how to extract a hydrophobic and stretchable polymer”, a kind of rubber, or even a liquid that can be used as a natural fungicide on fruit trees, replacing a chemical pesticide .
food waste
In the field of “bioeconomy” and materials of biological origin, Inrae multiplies discoveries and patents. In Marseille, biochemist Jean-Guy Bertin works with filamentous fungi and their enzymes to break down hard-to-break polymers, such as certain plastics, with a view to recycling them. In Nantes, Johnny Beaugrand and his associates worked with Japanese automotive supplier Howa Tramico on a prototype insulating molding for a car roof made of compressed flax gauze.
He also had Cavi, a Troyes plastics specialist, make stakes and garden accessories containing 40% dried tomato stems or clips for hanging hemp fiber vines. In general, the “challenge” of the bioeconomy is to facilitate the transition from an economy “based on carbon and oil” to a “circular and renewable” economy through the use of biomass and waste from agri-food or agriculture, summarizes. Monique Axelos, Scientific Director of Food and Bioeconomy at INRAE.
For example, in Europe, for some 2.5 million tons of olive oil produced per year, the sector generates 22 million tons of waste: branches, leaves, pomace (pulp residue and bone fragments), vegetable water ( liquid residue) and cores.
There are initiatives to reuse olive by-products. An Irish company has signed agreements with Greek producers to feed their wagyu cattle; a French company manufactures soccer fields with cores; in Spain a flour is produced; In Morocco, hotels have heating. “But, in general, there is very little communication from companies about the valuation of by-products,” says Mechtild Donner, an economist at Inrae Montpellier.
“I thought we knew everything”
His idea, the physical chemist Isabelle Capron had initially considered it so incongruous that it was not believed. Working with cellulose (from wood or paper pulp), he showed that it was a stabilizing element that allowed the production of emulsions or gels to replace petroleum-derived surfactants and widely used in the manufacture of cosmetics, paints, pesticides or even bitumens.
“This discovery surprised me. I thought we knew everything about cellulose, the most abundant biopolymer on earth,” she says. When she filed the world patent for her in 2010, she opened up a huge field of applications. Today, French and foreign chemical giants, fearful that certain petrochemical compounds will soon be banned in Europe, are taking a keen interest in her work to try to reduce their impact on the environment.
“They must agree to review their industrial process” to integrate these new molecules, which will require a small investment, warns Isabelle Capron. “The most important thing is that at the end of their life, these paints, cosmetics or polishes will only release cellulose into nature”, which is assimilated into the environment.
Source: BFM TV
