Starch producer Roquette Frères (Lestrem / France; www.roquette.com) has taken the first step to becoming a biopolymer producer with the launch of the "Gaialene" polymer family. The materials, which are claimed to be based 50% on starch, were developed together with Setup Performance (Frontonas / France; www.setuperformance.com). Roquette currently produces the polymers in a pilot plant in Lestrem with capacity for several hundred tonnes a year, but by Q1 2011 the company intends to have installed an industrial-scale plant at one of its French sites. The capacity is expected to be "several ten thousand tonnes a year," general manager Michel Serpelloni told Plasteurope.com. The Roquette research team began working on the development of plant-based thermoplastics in 2007 as part of the "Gaiahub" innovation project. It is therefore to be expected that more polymers will follow.

Roquette says Gaialene, which is apparently similar to the thermoplastic starches and the derived "eco plastic" compounds made by Plantic Technologies (Laverton North, Victoria / Australia; www.plantic.com.au), is intended for applications in which polyolefins, ABS or engineering plastics are otherwise used. The three Gaialene grades currently available have high impact resistance and a soft feel, and are also easy to colour and compound, says Roquette. The polymers can be processed using standard processes such as injection moulding and extrusion blow moulding.

"The Gaialene range is not the result of a simple mixing or compounding process, but a veritable hemi-synthesis that gives the thermoplastics completely new properties," explained Jean-Bernard Leleu, director general of Roquette. CO₂ emissions from the recyclable Gaialene are said to be at least 40% below those of oil-based plastics. It also has the advantage that it can be processed at a comparatively low temperature of 170 °C, additionally lowering the energy consumption.