COLUMBUS, OH, U.S.A., October 15, 2014: Ohio State University’s OBIC Bioproducts Innovation Center has presented the first Bioproduct Innovation of the Year Award to Teknor Apex Company for development of Terraloy® HDT high-impact, heat-resistant, and compostable polylactic acid (PLA) compounds.
The award was announced October 6 in Columbus at the Bioproducts World Showcase & Conference, a new event hosted by OBIC and supported by the United States Department of Agriculture and other co-sponsors. Teknor Apex was among thirteen finalists in the Commercial category. The award winner in the Consumer category was Cenergy USA, Inc.
The new Terraloy HDT PLA compounds are available in extrusion grades for thermoformed products like lids, cups, bowls, and trays, and injection molding grades for cutlery, cups, and bowls. Besides being FDA compliant, the compounds have been designated as compostable in accordance with the ASTM D-6400 standard, and Teknor Apex has received USDA BioPreferred certification. Biobased content of the molding and extrusion grades is 84 and 96%, respectively.
In a life-cycle analysis, Terraloy HDT PLA compound exhibited slightly more greenhouse gas generation than uncompounded PLA resin and less than half that of high-impact polystyrene (HIPS), which is commonly used in many target applications.
"It is exciting to see how sophisticated biobased materials such as Terraloy HDT PLA are becoming," said Dennis Hall, Director of OBIC at The Ohio State University. "Congratulations to Teknor Apex on creating this valuable material and for winning OBIC's first ever Bioproducts Innovation of the Year."
To be a candidate for the Bioproducts Innovation of the Year Award, a biobased product must have been introduced into the market in the previous 18 months. Judging criteria include the percentage of biobased content compared to the total product composition, the innovativeness of the development, the uniqueness of the supply chain for the production of the biobased content from feedstock to production, and the importance of the role of the biobased content in the function of the total product.
Earlier this year, the new Terraloy products also received the Innovation in Bioplastics Award from the Bioplastics Council of SPI: The Plastics Industry Trade Association.
Details on the Bioproducts World Showcase & Conference are at www.bioproductsworld.org. The OBIC website is at www.bioproducts.osu.edu.
Photo Caption: Edwin Tam (at left in photo), manager of new strategic initiatives for Teknor Apex, accepts the Bioproduct Innovation of the Year Award from Max Maksimoski, president of Maximum C/Q, a consultant to the OBIC Bioproducts Innovation Center at Ohio State University.