BIOPLASTICTRAIN

BIOPLASTICTRAIN developed a 50h training content and a e-learning platform to upgrade plastic transformation technicians skills to be ready to work with biomaterials and bioplastics. The training platform and the contents are available on the internet for free and forever at https://bioplastictrain.eu/ and has the following content:

Definition and Characteritics
1 Chemical structure, and physical properties
2 Mechanical properties and methods to evaluate them
3 Plasticizers, nucleating agents and other additives
4 Polymers blends, composites and nano-composites
5 Biodegradability, composting and sustainability of bioplastic

Extrusion Compounding
1 Extrusion compounding general concepts
2 Formulations and screw configuration
3 processing conditions and equipment set up
4 typical problems that can arise when working with biopolymers

Blow Moulding
1 General concepts and main technologies (Blow extrusion moulding and blow injection moulding)
2 Formulations and material properties desired for blow moulding technologies
3 Processing conditions and equipment set up for different bioplastics
4 Typical problems of the blow moulding process and how to solve them

Injection Moulding
1 General Concepts and Applicative Process Technologies
2 Mould & Part Design: Fundamentals for Bioplastic Processing
3 Process Validation: DOEs with Simulation Moldflow® Insight’s
4 Moulding Defects: Troubleshooting & Solutions

Biocoating
1 Sol-Gel process for lacquer synthesis
2 Hybrid polymer coating: chemical structure, properties and synthesis
3 Characterization of hybrid polymer lacquers and coatings + biodegradability + description of the evaluation methods
4 Modification of hybrid polymers e.g. by the addition of fillers and nano-additives and/ or special precursors
5 Development and application of biocoatings

Bioplastic is according to famous Smithers Pira ranking, within the 5 key technologies towards 2023.
According to a recent job market analysis conducted by European Bioplastics, the European bioplastics industry could – with the right framework conditions in place – realise a steep employment growth. By 2025, production capacities of bioplastics within the EU could grow to up to 5.7 million tonnes per year – 10 percent of the European plastics production. This translates to up to 160,000 high skilled jobs that could be created in the European bioplastics sector.At this moment, bioplastics and biopolymers in its infancy, both at a global and European level, but It is expected a growth in the bioplastics market production volume of a 300% from 2015 till 2019, so it seems to be clear that a specialised knowledge on bioplastics and its behaviour through all the value chain actors it is of a general interest.The issue is that, for this moment, there is not any training for that. And the god news is that using bioplastic does not require any modification of actual plastic machines.

BIOPLASTICTRAIN was a consortium of five excellent partners, references in the bioplastic sector in Europe, with a vast record of R&D projects, with a finished project in common (Dibbiopack 2012-2016, 7,7M€).

Partners took advantage of this past experience and return to European industries and workers their gained experience in public funded R&D projects by developing an Open Educative Resource in the form of training course. The partnership was led by Aitiip the technological center of reference in Europe in the field of plastics processing, as it is the only one that is involved in the whole processing value chain, from material development to manufacturing of functional prototypes.Very remarkable partners like Fraunhofer (Germany), UNIPI (Italy), TECOS (Slovenia) and Tecnopackaging also takes part in the consortium, which is very well balanced in terms of educational entities (UNIPI), companies (Tecnopackaging), research centres (Fraunhofer) and industrial vet providers (Aitiip & Tecos).
All partners have previous experience in Eramus+ and European Projects. For dissemination purposes a stakeholders database was created, 2 multiplier events in Slovenia and Spain and participation in different national conferences have been also planned.The training content is available for free on internet for ever, and after project funding end a exploitation strategy has been turned on based on national languages translation (to be carried out after project funding ends). As a summary, BIOPLASTICTRAIN is the perfect online training course for today workers for tomorrow works, based on a transnational and excellent partnership.

BIOPLASTICTRAIN is also aligned with European Commission Circular Economy package, which assure its future projection and continuity.

Coordinator: 

FUNDACION AITIIP (Spain)

Other participants:

RAZVOJNI CENTER ORODJARSTVA SLOVENIJE (Slovenia)
NUEVAS TECNOLOGIAS PARA EL DESARROLLO DE PACKAGING Y PRODUCTOS AGROALIMENTARIOS CON COMPONENTE PLASTICA SL (Spain)
UNIVERSITA DI PISA (Italy)
FRAUNHOFER GESELLSCHAFTZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V. (Germany)

Start date: 01-11-2016

End date: 31-10-2018

EU Grant: 30.262,50 €

Project website: https://bioplastictrain.eu/