Aimplas, the Spanish-based Plastics Technology Centre, has completed its participation in the European project Innorex, which has looked to develop an innovative method to formulate PLA without metallic catalysts and using alternative energies.

As a result, the study found an improved PLA, with a resistance 200% higher than normal, with the potential to replace polypropylene as a material.

The main innovation saw the use of an extruder as a reactor to produce polylactic acid (PLA) from lactide.

The production of PLA used Ring-Opening Polymerisation (ROP) through a reactive extrusion process.

Aimplas was part of the European Project Innorex together with other 11 European companies and technology centres under the co-ordination of the German Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology.