EUBP Talk #4: Implementation of mechanical and chemical recycling and next generation industrial biotechnology

Futerro plans to become the first European producer of platform molecules and Poly Lactic Acid (PLA) by 2028, with the construction of a biorefinery in France that will cover the entire PLA value chain. As part of this project, the company will install a recycling unit capable of recycling PLA-based waste chemically and mechanically. The chemical recycling process will use Loopla™, Futerro's patented technology, which breaks down PLA back into lactic acid, enabling the production of virgin-quality PLA infinitely. In this talk, Geoffroy Delvinquier from Futerro explained how the scaling up of recycling technologies will be made possible, both from a technical and a strategic perspective.

Fortunato Palma Esposito presented on the next generation of industrial biotechnology based on extremophilic bacteria. Marine bacteria could be considered a promising microbial chassis for developing Next-Generation Industrial Biotechnology (NGIB) strategies to produce and degrade bioplastics more competitively. Principally, NGIB processes employ extremophilic bacteria to address the issuesassociated with Current Industrial Biotechnology (CIB) strategies, allowing for overcoming specific industrial barriers. The unexplored marine microbial biodiversity represents at the same time a challenge and an opportunity, worth being further investigated. Presentation: https://zenodo.org/records/15699536