Three guys actually use olive pits to make bioplastics!
Three Turkish students have founded a company to produce plastics from recycled olive pits and are exhibiting their products at the FAKUMA plastics show in Germany (October 15-19).
The company, Biolive Biyolojik ve kimyasal teknolojiler san tic a.s., is based in Istanbul, Turkey. Ahmet Ayas, co-founder and sales manager of the company, came up with the idea of recycling olive pits into bioplastics that can be used in a variety of products during an entrepreneurship class at Istanbul Technical University in 2017, eventually developing it to lab scale, then a pilot project, and then commercial operations about 18 months ago.
The company currently has a monthly processing capacity of about 800 tons of olive pits. Ayas said that the current production is about 250 tons, so the company has room to grow the plant. Biolive is not worried about the source of raw materials because Turkey is one of the world's largest olive producers, producing 500,000 tons of olive pits per year in Turkey alone. Globally, that number jumps to 6 million tons. Biolive already has relationships with olive processors, and the olive pits were originally burned or landfilled.
Ayas said that putting the olive pits in a reactor under pressure and temperature transforms them into a material that can then be used to make bioplastics, which can then be used alone or combined with other traditional plastics, such as polypropylene, to improve sustainability.
Ayas was reluctant to discuss the company's detailed processes, fearing that such information could spark competition. "It's mainly cellulose-based materials, not cellulose, because these materials are very suitable for other plastics," he said. According to the company's website, one of its products, called "Bio Pura," is a 100% bio-based and biodegradable biopolymer extracted from olive pits.
Today,Biolive's products are mainly injection molding production methods, usually used with polypropylene, but they are also being used with other resins such as ABS and polyethylene. Biolive is also currently working to introduce its products to other applications, including polycarbonate and a combination of polycarbonate and ABS.
In addition to creating a sustainable story by reusing olive pits to replace petroleum-based plastics, Biolive also pointed out that energy savings can be achieved by introducing its materials. This is because the processing temperature can be about 25-30 degrees lower than typical temperatures. This reduces the carbon footprint of production.
"We offer the same production, the same machinery, the same molds and almost the same parameters, just lowering the production temperature. The rest is the same," said Ayas, who counts Emin Oz and Duygu Yilmaz as co-founders. The company has attracted 20 investors since its founding.
Ayas said there is a slight price premium for using Biolive compared to using only traditional resins.
