Conference Notes Events

Biotech Enabled Polysaccharides and Applications by Christian Lenges

Dupont Industrial Biosciences division introduced NUVOLVE* polysaccharides late 2016.

10th International Conference on Bio-bases Marerials – Köln, Germany- May 10-11, 2017

It uses an enzyme catalyst (Glucotransferase or GTF) to convert sucrose to a polymer useable in polysaccharide applications.

Polysaccharides are extracted from plants and widely used to provide unique end-use applications but are limited by processes and the scarce availability of the resource. Dupont’s engineered polysaccharides allows to engineer the design and molecular architecture of the polymer called Alpha 1,3-Glucan. Properties reported are: water insoluble, zeta potential essentially zero and water absorption isotherm between cellulose I and II.

50 tons of it are expected to be manufactured in 2017 for sampling interested partners down the supply chain.

Application given as example: thermoplastic filler for bioplastics like PLA, increasing significantly it HDT (up to 140°C). By and large Dupont sees a bright future associated with reinforcing filler applications in rubber as a replacement of carbon black and silica.

In parallel to application development, Dupont started to develop derivatives from Alpha 1,3-Glucan.

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