With the aim of promoting more sustainable and safe biodegradable plastic solutions for the marine environment, Aimplas, the Technological Institute of Plastics, is working on new highly reliable standardized methodologies to assess the biodegradation, disintegration and ecotoxicity of bioplastics in the sea with the AIGUA MARINA project.
This project, funded by the Valencian Institute of Business Competitiveness (IVACE) and the European Union, allows a detailed analysis of the effect on marine environments of commercialized bioplastics, to help companies bring safe and biodegradable bioplastic products to the market, especially those intended for use directly in the sea, such as those related to Fishing arts.
The main challenge for AIGUA MARINA is, in the words of the researcher at the Aimplas Biodegradation and Compostability Laboratory, johana andrade, “reproduce the conditions of the sea on a laboratory scale, divided into different zones, each one of them with particularities in terms of microbial load, nutrients, pH and temperature. This research will make it possible to generate a high level of innovation at the methodological level, which will strengthen the knowledge and technology acquired to consolidate this line of research and, in this way, promote transfer and cooperation activities with companies."
Innovative techniques to ensure food safety
Along the same lines, Aimplas, through the project PYRASMIC, is trying to provide companies with a Reliable methodology for the detection, identification and quantification of microplastics in water for human consumption.
In this sense, the institute has advanced in new techniques to evaluate drinking water at different points of the industrial process, "which allows action to reduce the presence or generation of microplastics and thus improve the safety of products to preserve health and the quality of life of citizens", as explained by María Lorenzo, researcher at the AIMPLAS Chromatographic Techniques Laboratory.
To carry out these projects, Aimplas has the collaboration of numerous companies such as San Benedetto Mineral Water; Acteco Waste Management, Treatment and Recycling; Global Omnium; Hydro-Water; Iberia soft drink; gaviplas; ITC-Packaging; Plast Pack Paper; Prime Biopolymers y bioinitiate.
These projects are financed by IVACE through the FEDER funds of the EU, within the FEDER Operational Program of the Valencian Community 2021-2027.
