Used frying oil will have a new life as a natural bioplastic

The natural bioplastic produced with used frying oil would have the same thermomechanical properties as traditional plastics. A new natural bioplastic "made in Italy" that solves the problem of eliminating this type of oils.

Use the frying oil used to produce natural bioplastics, 100% biodegradable and with the same thermomechanical properties as traditional plastics. This is the new development of the Bio-on laboratories, a company based in Bologna that operates in the field of high quality bioplastics, which has decided to use as waste material a waste material among the most expensive in terms of disposal, and with a high environmental impact.

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It is the first time that the carbon source used to feed the production process is lipidic in nature. The frying oil used, in fact, is added to the raw materials already used by Bio-on to produce bioplastics: sugar beet molasses and sugar cane, fruit and potato remains, carbohydrates in general and glycerol. The resulting biopolymer, they say, would be a natural and completely biodegradable product.

The discovery, says the president and CEO of Bio-on: “is the result of two years of research and allows you to take advantage of the huge amounts of this waste product, especially in markets such as North America and Asia, where the consumption of fried foods is high and the amount of used oil exceeds, according to our estimates, one billion liters per day. The natural bioplastic manufactured with the used frying oil has the same characteristics as that generated from other waste or other agroindustrial products, which is possible thanks to a treatment system to which the used oil is previously subjected ”.

Compared to traditional plastics, bioplastics are obtained from renewable plant sources without competing with food supply chains and offer application possibilities even in sectors where traditional plastics are not used.