EL SEGUNDO, US: Cereplast Inc, a leading manufacturer of proprietary biobased, compostable and sustainable bioplastics, announced the incorporation of a new wholly owned subsidiary, Algaeplast Inc. Algaeplast’s focus will be the development and manufacture of algae-based bioplastics. Cereplast has been a pioneer in algae-based plastics, helping to bring the first products made from Cereplast Algae Bioplastics grades to market in 2011, and with the recent commercialization of Biopropylene 109D in December 2012.
“With recent developments made in the algae-to-oil process, the company believes it will reach its goal within less than 5 years, either solely or in partnership with other significant players in the field. We began developing algae-based bioplastics in 2008, have made several breakthroughs since, and are very close to reaching our original goal of 50 per cent algae bio-content,” said Frederic Scheer, Chairman and CEO, Cereplast.
“We continue to receive a lot of interest in this material for a variety of applications and are committed to further developing this new category of plastic. We foresee significant revenue potential. The next frontier for Algaeplast is to generate new polymers that are made with 100 per cent algae bio-content, and based on our current level of knowledge, we anticipate reaching that goal within the next five years,” added Scheer.
“The first milestone will be to increase the level of algae bio-content from 20 per cent post-industrial algae biomatter to 50 per cent, and this next step is imminent. Achieving these goals will require additional research, development and partnerships, and we have a very clear understanding of what needs to be done to reach this goal. As such, we felt that it was important to segregate this activity from the development of our starch-based bioplastic grades, and create Algaeplast,” said Scheer.
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