TerraVerdae BioWorks, an industrial biotechnology company developing advanced bioplastics and environmentally sustainable biomaterials, announced that it has successfully achieved key milestones for the economic, commercial production for its line of PHA-based biomaterials. These include 10,000 liter production runs of the firm’s line of biodegradable, natural microspheres for use in personal care and cosmetic products, as a direct replacement for synthetic, non-degradable plastic microbeads.

“Developing the technologies needed to produce commercial scale quantities of our biomaterial products in an economic and efficient process is a milestone for the company, and potentially the industry,” said William Bardosh, CEO and founder of TerraVerdae. “Our first product developed using this technology, biodegradable and biocompatible microspheres to replace synthetic microbeads in personal care products, addresses a strong global need to remove plastic contamination from water supplies.”

TerraVerdae’s natural microspheres are a PHA-based biomaterial produced using a non-GMO, non-toxic, plant-associated process. TerraVerdae’s microspheres are intrinsically biocompatible and meet industry standards for biodegradation in a marine environment. TerraVerdae can produce microspheres in a range of sizes, in both smooth and coarse finishes, that feature high optical clarity and the mechanical characteristics to meet all requirements for cosmetic formulations.

Supported by a grant from Innovate UK and in collaboration with researchers at facilities in the UK’s Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), TerraVerdae has successfully scaled-up its biodegradable and biocompatible materials technology from laboratory pilot scale to 10,000 plus liter capabilities, validating process scale up and production economics for commercial deployment.

“We are also fortunate to have collaborated on this technology with the UK’s CPI,” said Bardosh. “They are one of the world’s leading facilities for process innovation in the industrial bioprocess arena and their support has been invaluable.”

‘’The project with TerraVerdae has been a great opportunity for us to collaborate with a pioneer in the industry,” said Pete Carney, business development manager at the CPI. “CPI has used its bioprocessing scale up expertise to take the process from lab scale to commercialization.’’

TerraVerdae BioWorks
www.terraverdae.com

Centre for Process Innovation (CPI)
www.uk-cpi.com

Innovate UK
www.gov.uk