As part of delivering TotalEnergies Corbion’s mission of “Reducing carbon footprints through bioplastics innovation”, our team participated in the project SEALIVE, or Strategies of Circular Economy and Advanced Biobased Solutions to Keep Our Lands and Seas Alive from Plastics Contamination. Funded through the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme, SEALIVE was a European innovation project, gathering companies, NGOs, research and technology organizations and universities from countries across Europe.
Finalized in March 2024, SEALIVE lasted for 4,5 years during which it developed advanced biobased plastic solutions as viable alternatives in several marine and land applications. The SEALIVE project boosted the use of biobased materials like polylactic acid (PLA) and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), as well as other biobased plastics that can replace conventional plastics and hereby decrease a material's environmental impact.
The project partners worked together to provide real life solutions to some of today’s key environmental challenges and have delivered several demonstrators. Fishing nets were one of these key products, which used TotalEnergies Corbion Luminy® PLA bioplastics. The fishing nets produced in the project can be industrially composted in less than 6 months and are assumed to dissolve after 10 years if they escape into the ocean - which is 40 times faster than conventional plastic fishing nets. Additionally, Luminy® PLA bioplastics were also used in fishing crates and oyster mesh bags.
Another objective of SEALIVE was knowledge sharing, through events, workshops and trainings for downstream converters, end-users and other stakeholders. An example of ensuring engineered solutions meet real life users’ daily needs, was the visit to the implementation pilots of the biobased fishing nets in Cyprus. Watch the video: SEALIVE Fishing Nets Technical Meeting
Another key highlight of the SEALIVE project, was the development by Pellenc ST of an optical sorter that identifies and separates the different bioplastics from waste streams, avoiding contamination and ensuring circularity of materials. Biodegradable, compostable or recyclable, bioplastics can be separated from the most commonly used recyclable polymers, like PET, PE, PP or PS. Additionally, different bioplastic families can also be separated from each other: PLA, PBS, PBAT, PHB-PHBV and cellulose acetate. Learn more about the results of their tests: Contribution to the Future of Biobased plastics | Pellenc ST.
Finally, the SEALIVE project contributed to promote regulatory support for biobased plastics. A set of documents, including policy briefings, contain policy recommendations on biobased materials that can be used on international policies such as the UN Plastics Treaty, the EU Plastics strategy and EU Circular economy action plan, MARPOL or International Convention for the prevention of Pollution from Ships, European Regional Seas Conventions or the OECD’s Basel Convention. Find out about the policy briefings at https://zenodo.org/communities/sealive
Learn more about the SEALIVE project at www.sealive.eu and watch the Final SEALIVE Project Video.