Polylactic Acid for our Bioplastic Assets

• Diana Awimrin
• Leena Daniel
• Thomas Mazur
• Yohannes Teweldeberhan

Advisors: Betul Bilgin, PhD, Dennis O’Brien

In 2016, 740 billion pounds of plastic was produced worldwide with an annual growth rate of approximately 4%. When considering that most of these plastics are oil-based, the drawbacks of using such plastics include an increase in waste management, land and water pollution, and the release of CO2 into the atmosphere from the crude oil refinery process. With that said, bioplastics have seen a significant growth in interest compared to their oil-based plastic counterparts in the last several years. Bioplastics can be used in several important markets such as food packaging and beverage containers. The goal of this project is to design a production plant to produce polylactic acid (PLA), which is biodegradable and a key raw material in bioplastic production, while ensuring the plant operates as environmentally friendly and cost-effective as possible. PLA is projected to have an increased demand of 9% by 2022. It is imperative that any biobased plastics in consideration should be derived from plant material that does not require new land to be cultivated. This is because the cultivation of land to accommodate the growth of virgin feedstocks contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. This plant will focus on producing PLA from the waste of an already-cultivated crop such as sugarcane bagasse. The plant will be located in São Paulo, Brazil producing 143 kT/yr of 99% purity PLA. The annual revenue is approximated to be $244MM with a cash cost of production (CCOP) of $166MM which leads to a gross profit of $78MM. If plastic producers adopt the production methods proposed in this report, greenhouse gases and waste will be reduced, while producing a sustainable and biodegradable product.

See supporting documentation in the team’s Box drive.