The UK is the highest consumer of convenience packaging per capita in the world and is experiencing rapid growth in sophisticated packaging. Currently there is intense interest in forms of packaging that have improved environmental credentials and reduced impact after use, whilst maintaining functionality and with minimal increase in price. This project has succeeded in developing a method to produce pulps from sustainable agricultural waste products and has used this pulp to produce moulded products to be used as packaging for food materials The project developed one specific packaging type, to commercial prototype levels, that satisfied required product properties such as strength, flexibility, thickness and water resistance whilst being biodegradable and that performed well in Life Cycle Assessments in comparison to existing competitive materials. The product has achieved good customer feedback to date and demonstrates good potential to be commercially viable. The project has shown the potential for adding value to a waste product whilst also producing a viable packaging material.

The objective of the project is to develop a chemisty and reactor engineering solution to purify and manufacture sustainable products from the glut of 10% glycerol co-product which accompanies plant oil-derived biodiesel. Viable catalytic routes to key chemical intermediates are a missing key step. The products would be carbon neutral and potentially be a means of actually sequestering CO2. An integrated supply chain which supports the agricultural, chemical and transportation sectors would evolve.

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