Innovation - NatureWorks PLA
Making plastics from plants. Almost all plastics, so ubiquitous in the modern world, are made from petroleum pumped from the earth's core. This new material, NatureWorks PLA, is a corn-derived plastic. Through simple fermentation and distillation, corn is converted into polymers and resins for use in packaging and fiber application. NatureWorks PLA can be used for packaging films, thermoformed containers, and fibers for apparel and even carpet and office furniture. NatureWorks fits many applications in which plastics are currently used. It allows one of the world's most used materials to be made from a common annually renewable source. These new plastics are compostable and offer the potential of recycling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Biography
Patrick Gruber began his scientific career in 1989 as president of Lactech, a technology development company. That same year, Dr. Gruber was named leader of Cargill's renewable bioplastics project and, in ...
