Danimer Scientific, a developer and manufacturer of biodegradable materials, announced the successful completion of de-bottlenecking initiatives within its Winchester, Kentucky, manufacturing facility.
Danimer’s technology can be found in a vast array of plastics and end products, as well as applications including films, coatings, hot-melt adhesives, and others.
Danimer Scientific is a pioneer in creating more sustainable, more natural ways to make plastic products. Applications for its biopolymers include additives, aqueous coatings, filaments, films, hot-melt adhesives, and injection-molded articles, among others.
“After taking steps to optimize our processes and equipment, the facility was brought back online in late May, and we used early June to confirm that both fermentation and downstream processing of our material is running at the projected levels, which are higher than before these initiatives,” said company, CEO Stephen Croskrey.
He added: “We look forward to delivering the high volumes of PHA our partners and customers need to create products that will help reduce the environmental impacts of plastics waste.”
This achievement positions the company to accelerate production of Nodax, its signature polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), toward reaching 100% of the facility’s current annual run-rate capacity of 20 million pounds of Nodax-based resins by the end of 2021.
Unlike petrochemical-based plastics, Nodax is a PHA produced through natural fermentation processes using plant oil from crops such as canola. The material is certified to degrade in a variety of environments at the end of its lifecycle, including industrial composting facilities, backyard compost units, and soil and marine environments.
It can be used in a wide range of applications, including flexible packaging.
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