Sustainable Plastics - July/August 2022 - 17

value chain collaboration
Scientists have found more
than 150 PHAs with different
polymer structures. The kind
of bacteria and the substrate
used- sugars, starches, glycerin,
triglycerides, methane-
determines the type of PHA
produced. At Genecis, drawing
on the diverse backgrounds of
the scientists and engineers at
work there, a combination of artificial
intelligence and genetic
engineering was used ultimately
to develop microorganisms
that could handle the task.
Deposited as water-insoluble
granules inside the cells, PHAs
are composed of hydroxy fatty
acids and are produced by
microbes as a source of metabolic
energy as well as a carbon
store. Cultivated in fermentation
tanks, the bacteria, once
mature, undergo mechanical
or chemical lysis, after which
the PHA is separated from the
cell debris in a washing step to
obtain the pure polymer. This is
then compressed into pellets,
which can be further blended
into compounds or processed
into end products.
PHAs are biopolyesters, and
as such they are not only 100
percent biobased, but they also
biodegrade in soil, freshwater,
and marine environments,
and are both industrial- and
home-compostable. While that
alone makes them an interesting
class of materials, they
can also offer physical properties
and functionalities that are
comparable to polyethylene
and polypropylene, and even
PET, and are suitable for use
in a wide range of applications,
such as cutlery, cups, films, bottles,
and other packaging.
Yet despite these highly attractive
characteristics, PHAs have
been a research target for many
decades, without ever having
become more than an expensive
niche product. It is not hard to
see the reason for this: the traditional
methods for PHAs production
are extremely expensive.
Most other commercial PHA
manufacturers rely on high-cost
substrates: pure sugars, fats,
and animal or vegetable proteins.
" Expensive and hard to
scale, " said Yu. She added that
the cost of the carbon source
can contribute some 40-60
percent of the overall cost of
PHA production. For production
Rob Celik, Genecis' head of
Growth and Partnerships.
to become cost-effective, an
abundant, inexpensive source
of carbon must be found.
" Which is exactly what we
have done, " explained Yu. " Instead
of buying sugars, we use
organic food waste, which literally
costs nothing, while our
bacteria allow us to produce
PHAs at the same efficiency as
sugar feedstock. So, our feedstock
is more challenging to
work with and to control, unlike
sugars, which have a very
consistent quality but by using
a zero-cost feedstock, we've
eliminated all those costs at a
single stroke. "
Plus, as she pointed out, using
waste not only means there
is no competition with the human
food supply, but the PHAs
Genecis produces are also more
carbon negative than those of
competitors. By diverting food
waste away from landfills where
it degrades and produces the
greenhouse gas methane, the
company can offset 0.8 tonnes
of carbon emissions per tonne
of food waste processed.
" Food waste on its own is actually
the third largest methane
emitter right after fossil fuels
and livestock or agriculture, "
said Yu. " It's exciting to be able
to offer a solution that tackles
the problem of food waste, finite
resources and pollution, all
at the same time. "
Collaboration as a model
Since its launch in a lab rented
from the University of Toronto,
Genecis has expanded to a
10,000-square-foot facility in
Scarborough, near Toronto and
has built a pilot facility. However,
it has developed a model
for further growth that is based
on partnerships and licensing,
rather than building their own
plant.
That model, explained Rob
Celik, Genecis' head of Growth
and Partnerships, is essentially
a decentralised scaling model,
focused on collaborating
with biogas companies and
piggybacking onto their existing
infrastructure. In that way,
Genecis is able to produce its
materials at a fraction of the
cost - when it comes to scaling
the technology - to deliver
that material at scale, as well as
realising various synergies that
exist with these partners. Collaborating
with existing plants
ensures a steady and reliable
supply of the fatty acids Genecis
uses as feedstock, while
at the same time saving on the
investment needed to build a
facility of its own. Plus, it can be
applied at biogas plants wherever
located around the world,
enabling local production from
domestic waste.
" Biogas plants essentially
collect massive amounts of organic
waste around all urban
areas. It's basically the go-to
method of processing waste at
the moment - but these plants
generate a very low-value output
product and have a very
long process, " he said. " So,
what we're looking to do is to
integrate with biogas plants.
By transforming low value
waste into a high value bioplastic,
we help them generate
more revenue, potentially creating
a more profitable system
for both the biogas plants
and ourselves. "
Genecis envisions creating
a drop-in solution to the existing
infrastructure that can
be scaled globally - enabling
significant volumes of PHA to
be produced globally, through
a package solution that could
simply be bolted onto existing
biogas installations.
The Capex-heavy alternative
would be to build on a
greenfield site, which is what
a lot of the bio plastics companies
do these days, added
Celik. " They have to start from
scratch: get all the permits to
do the construction, foundation,
electrical and utilities to
build a completely new factory.
All of that already exists at
a biogas plant. They already
have the environmental permitting,
utilities, and the infrastructure.
It makes a lot of
sense to use this integration
model of working with existing
biogas plants as opposed to
building these massive factories
by ourselves - and to take
the technology further on less
resources. "
First project
The first steps towards realizing
this model have already
been taken. Genecis was last
year awarded $6 million in
collaborative funding by Next
Generation Manufacturing
Canada for a project that it
is developing together with
StormFisher, a developer and
operator of organic waste and
clean energy solutions.
" We've known StormFisher
since 2018, when the company
first started. They were interested
in what we were doing, and
we've since stayed in contact.
They were a natural choice for
us to work with, also because
they were eager to work with us
and be the first to try our solution, "
said Yu.
The two companies have
partnered on a project that will
see the integration of a demonstration-scale
Genecis unit with
the new food waste recovery
centre opened by Storm Fisher
last summer in Drumbo, Ontario
in Canada. At the site, StormFisher
preprocesses discarded
packaged food and green bin
organic waste - approximately
110,000 tons of source separated
organics annually - after which
this is sent to the company's aerobic
digester in nearby London.
Storm Fisher,
itself a
cleantech company, understood
the benefit of the technology,
said Yu, and how this could
generate more revenue per ton
of food waste, thus improving
profitability for organics recycling
operations. " Which is how
we were able to end up partnering
with the biggest biogas
plant in Canada right now, " Yu
pointed out.
She added that once this project
was completed, the company
would then obviously be
continued on page 18
July/August 2022
17
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