BASF (Ludwigshafen / Germany; www.basf.com) has added two new products to its “Ecovio” family of biodegradable plastics: "Ecovio FS Paper" for coating paper and "Ecovio FS Shrink Film" for packaged goods. The German group said initial production tests have been conducted successfully at customers’ facilities, and the products are expected to be launched in the first quarter of 2010.

“In order to obtain effective paper coatings, a film made of the new Ecovio FS Paper has to be easy to process and exhibit good adhesion to the paper, even when applied in thin layers,” said Gabriel Skupin, who leads BASF’s technical product development for biodegradable plastics. “Such coatings are used, for example, on paper cups or cardboard boxes.”

Ecovio FS Shrink Film, in contrast, has a selected ratio of shrinkage to strength, so its mechanical load capacity at a film thickness of just 25 micrometers is greater than that of a conventional 50 micrometers thick PE film, BASF said. The new Ecovio FS consists of BASF’s “Ecoflex” FS, a biodegradable bio-based polymer, and PLA, which is extracted from corn starch.

The company said Ecovio FS biodegrades even more rapidly than its predecessors, and contains a higher content of renewable raw material.