The EU-funded BioSupPack project has concluded its activities after 5 years, stating it has successfully demonstrated that brewery waste can be transformed into high-performance bioplastics for sustainable packaging.
Over five years, the consortium has sought to develop and validate polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA and PHB) materials and production processes that offer viable alternatives to fossil-based plastics, while supporting compliance with the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR).
The 18 consortium partners joined forces under the coordination of AIMPLAS, the Plastics Technology Centre based in Valencia, Spain. The project was funded by the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) with a reported 7.6 million Euros under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
Rosa González Leyba, project coordinator at AIMPLAS, emphasizes: “Our consortium has successfully scaled up innovative biorefinery processes and developed biobased materials for rigid packaging for food and non-food applications, obtaining packaging prototypes which are very close to the current counterparts on the market.”
BioSupPack has developed a scalable bioprocess said to efficiently convert brewery spent grains into high-purity PHB through an innovative plasma pretreatment and microbial fermentation. This process transforms a low-value waste stream into a functional biopolymer while creating industrial symbiosis between breweries and bioplastics producers. The process has apparently reached TRL 6, demonstrating feasibility in industrially relevant environments.
According to AIMPLAS, BioSupPack also developed PHA plastisol coatings that are 99% biobased and fully biodegradable, able to be applied to paperboard as alternatives to PE coatings, and to textiles as replacements for PVC. The innovation is protected by Centexbel’s patent and has reached TRL 6, ready for licensing to coating manufacturers.
The consortium says it has created industrially compostable, fibre-based packaging with barrier properties comparable to fossil-based plastics, for applications including ice cream cups and trays. The solution aims to enable companies to meet sustainability goals while offering dual end-of-life options.
Project partner Sabiomaterials has developed PHB-based materials optimized for rigid packaging applications such as bottles and displays for retail applications. The materials are reportedly produced from renewable waste streams, are fully biodegradable, mechanically and enzymatically recyclable, and have been specifically formulated for improved processability by extrusion blow moulding and injection moulding. The innovation has reached TRL 7, with industrial-scale production.
The sorting prototype for the packaging waste from IRIS is anticipated to allow the recovery of new packaging waste streams for the subsequent enzymatic recycling - which BioSupPack says has shown to be an effective end-of-life for these packaging materials, due to the development of novel selective enzymes.
AIMPLAS adds that the results achieved by BioSupPack are available for uptake by industry stakeholders, including biopolymer producers, biorefineries, packaging manufacturers and brand owners in the food, cosmetics, and consumer goods sectors.
In 2025 the project announced it had developed a compostable, renewable material from brewer’s spent grain that can replace conventional polyolefins and be used to develop new thermoplastic materials and coatings for packaging in the food, cosmetics, and household cleaning sectors.
Last summer Arbikie Distillery, Edinburgh Napier University and the University of Dundee collaborated on the MycoPack project, aiming to use distillery by-products like spent grain to create compostable packaging. The material created is apparently an impact-resistant, fire-retardant and fully compostable alternative to plastic.
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