MATERIALS / RECYCLING PETplanet Insider Vol. 25 No. 09/24 www.petpla.net 14 First PEF World Congress in Düsseldorf, Germany PEF, polyester material of the future by Michael Thielen, Publisher of Renewable Carbon Plastics Magazine There is no doubt that plastics based on fossil raw materials are problematic in terms of climate change and limited resources. In many cases, plastics made from renewable raw materials already represent an interesting alternative. A comparatively new biobased plastic is polyethylene furanoate (PEF). Chemically, the aromatic polyester material is similar to the well-known commodity plastic PET, which is made from monoethylene glycol (MEG) and terephthalic acid. HO Terephthalic acid (TA) OH O O Furan- dicarboxilic acid (FDCA) HO OH O O O Figure 1: Building blocks of PET (terephthalic acid) and PEF (furandicarboxylic acid) (Source: Renewable Carbon Plastics) While biobased MEG is already being used in some cases for PET, the production of terephthalic acid from renewable raw materials has not yet been sufficiently developed. With the biobased furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), PEF can therefore be a 100% biobased alternative for PET. Compared to PET, PEF is also characterised by improved properties, such as higher structural strength, better thermal properties and strongly improved barrier behaviour. PEF can be used for a variety of commercial applications, including bottles, films, food packaging, textiles, carpets, electronics applications and in the automotive sector. Another advantage of PEF is that it can be processed on the same equipment that is used for PET, other polyesters and often even other plastics. In many cases, only changes to the process parameters are required, as is usually the case when switching between different materials. Properties PEF is comparable to PET in many respects: It is a transparent and relatively rigid polymer. However, there are some notable differences between PEF and PET. PEF has a glass transition temperature of 86 °C, which is ~10 °C higher than PET. In the packaging industry, the remarkable barrier properties of PEF represent a significant improvement over PET. PEF has a ten times higher oxygen- and a 15 times higher CO2 barrier and two and a half times as high a water vapour barrier as PET. In addition, the strength and modulus of PEF are significantly higher than those of PET. For brand owners and packaging developers, the improved properties of PEF offer a range of innovation opportunities such as extending shelf life, further reducPET bio-PET (30) e.g. Coca-Cola plantbottle® 100% biobased MEG therephthalic acid therephthalic acid bio-MEG furandicarboxylic acid bio-MEG Figure 2: PEF can be a 100% biobased alternative for PET (Source: Renewable Carbon Plastics) Higher Tg (by about 10°C) Lower Tm (by about 30- 40 °C) Improved barrier to CO2, O2 and water vapor. Better metal adhesion 16—20x better CO2 barrier Light weighting potential (60% higher modulus &strength) Bio-based with PET-like mechanical properties 10x better O2 barrier PEF can be processed in existing PET lines PEF is complementary to PET PEF for flexible packaging PEF for CSD PEF resin General PEF for rigid packaging PEF for fibres & textiles PEF for oxygen sensitive drinks Figure 3: PEF application examples (Picture: Avantium)
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