Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Greener Plastics with High Heat Tolerance for Additive Manufacturing
EPA Contract Number: 68HERC20C0003Title: Greener Plastics with High Heat Tolerance for Additive Manufacturing
Investigators: DiCarmine, Paul
Small Business: Intelligent Optical Systems Inc.
EPA Contact: Richards, April
Phase: II
Project Period: November 1, 2019 through October 31, 2021 (Extended to April 30, 2022)
RFA: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) - Phase II (2019) Recipients Lists
Research Category: Heavy Metal Contamination of Soil/Water , SBIR - Manufacturing , Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) , Urban Air Toxics
Description:
Advances in materials and automation are rapidly reshaping the American manufacturing economy, and must be embraced to sustain a strong manufacturing sector in the United States. Additive manufacturing is not only a growing source of plastic consumption, but also a growing source of plastic waste. Traditional plastics used in additive manufacturing are produced from fossil-derived, volatile and toxic chemicals, and are not degradable, but existing greener alternatives are not heat tolerant and deform at <60°C. Despite this severe limitation, greener plastics already account for 32% of material used in additive manufacturing, a market trend that indicates a strong demand for a greener, heat tolerant plastic.
In this project we developed a method for polymerizing high average number molecular weight, compostable, bio-based thermoplastic that is scalable and compliant with industrial standards. Our biothermoplastic polymer has a measured glass transition temperature of 92°C, comparable to those of the most common fossil-based thermoplastics (ABS, poly(styrene), PETG) used in additive manufacturing. This plastic is produced from non-toxic, non-volatile feedstock, and incorporates carbon-oxygen bonds into its backbone similar to poly(lactic acid), which facilitate degradation and depolymerization at end of life.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
Our polymer measured a glass transition temperature 44°C higher than that of poly(lactic acid), which will facilitate its infusion into the 3D printing market as a high heat tolerant greener thermoplastic. We developed a method to polymerize our biothermoplastic with molecular weights around 30k Da.
Conclusions:
We developed a scalable process for producing a higher heat tolerant compostable biothermoplastic that has the potential to disrupt the current materials industry. This novel material is derived from a non-toxic and renewable monomer, and is aligned with a circular materials economy. With a Tg of 90°C, it is comparable to conventional fossil fuel-based plastics.
Fused deposition modeling (FDM), by far the most common form of AM, was first patented in 1988, but would not begin to realize its full potential as a mass market consumer product until it was scaled down to desktop devices when the original patents expired in 2008. Since then, the 3D printing market has exploded, with an astonishing compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.5% projected between 2021 and 2026.[1] Our product is an additive manufacturing plastic material designed for FDM. The 3D printing market was estimated at $615.8 million in 2018 for the AM plastics segment with a CAGR of 26.1% due to the increased rate of growth of the desktop printing market relative to the overall AM market, valuing the total addressable market at $1.96 billion by 2023.[2] If we capture just 1% of this market with our novel material within five years of a successful Phase II project, it will be a successful venture for IOS. Furthermore, establishing our greener heat tolerant plastic in the AM market will facilitate entry into larger markets.
Early in its rise to popularity in the early 2000s, 3D printing was pigeonholed to producing tangible prototypes to aid product development and research, and the environmental burden due to total printed part quantity was low. But now, with printers used across many government agencies, being implemented in curricular and extracurricular programs at schools, and increasingly being found in homes across America more and more plastic things are being brought into existence using this technology making the use of greener plastics an increasing necessity.
FDM technology has the potential to decentralize the manufacturing process by giving consumers the power to produce items on their own printers. The maker community has grown substantially as the cost of 3D printers has become more reasonable for consumers. Although every house having a 3D printer may be in the distant future, their increasing acceptance is causing manufacturers to reimagine the way products are distributed. It's possible that within our lifetimes consumers will be able to buy a model online and print the hard item themselves, eliminating the need for shipping simple objects. Home printed parts will eliminate the time and energy wasted by mass transport of simple plastic parts, replacement or otherwise. There is potential to save the consumer money if goods with one broken plastic component can be repaired, rather than replaced. On-demand manufacturing will also enable companies selling plastic parts to release revisions similar to those by software companies. If a better design is available, they can simply change the parts without worrying about losses from old stock due to mass manufacturing backlogs. This will substantially decrease overhead costs and potential loss due to unsold merchandise for small and large businesses alike. Importantly, all of these drivers point to the production of more and more plastic items and highlight the importance of early investment in greener materials.
Furthermore, the thermoplastic we developed is not limited to use in 3D printers; it also has the potential to be commercialized as a bulk bioplastic material for conventional manufacturing. The global plastics market is expected to reach $732 billion by 2028.[3] Specifically, demand for bioplastics is rising and with more sophisticated biopolymers, applications, and products emerging, the market is continuously increasing. According to the latest market data compiled by European Bioplastics in cooperation with the research institute nova-Institute, global bioplastics production capacity is set to increase from around 2.05 million tons in 2017 to approximately 2.44 million tons in 2022.
From 2021 to 2026, biodegradable plastics will see an estimated annual growth rate of 25%. Starch-based resins and polylactic acid (PLA) have remained one of the leading bioplastic products through 2021, to account for 19% of demand. Bio-based, non-biodegradable plastics, including the drop-in solutions bio-based PE (polyethylene) and bio-based PET (polyethylene terephthalate), as well as bio-based PA (polyamides), currently make up ~23% (13 million tons) of the global bioplastics production capacities. There is no biodegradable, high-heat tolerant bioplastic challenger to these products on the market. Our technology will be a valid competitor to both the low temperature tolerance biodegradable PLA, and the higher temperature tolerance non-biodegradable bioplastics.
Looking forward, there will be applications in high value single-use items, specifically, customized disposable or absorbable medical devices. Even further forward, our technology will be applicable to lower value, single-use items fabricated by traditional manufacturing methods that require heat tolerance that are not easily recycled, particularly as the world moves away from single-use items composed of fossil-based plastics.
References:
[1] "3D Printing Market with COVID-19 Impact Analysis by Offering, Process, Application, Vertical, and Geography - Global Forecast to 2026," marketsandmarkets.com, accessed 04/26/2022.
[2] "3D Printing Plastic Market by Type, by Form, by Application, by End-User Industry, and by Region - Global Forecasts to 2020," marketsandmarkets.com, accessed 02/22/2019.
[3] https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/global-plastics-market, accessed 04/26/2022.
SBIR Phase I:
Greener Plastics with High Heat Tolerance for Additive Manufacturing | Final ReportThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.