TerraVerdae BioWorks Inc. (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; www.terraverdae.com), 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 biomaterials based on polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA). 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.
Supported by a grant from Innovate U.K., and in collaboration with researchers at facilities in the U.K.’s Centre for Process Innovation, TerraVerdae has successfully scaled up its biodegradable and biocompatible materials technology from laboratory pilot scale to 10,000 liter and greater capabilities, validating process scale up and production economics for commercial deployment.
“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 BioWorks. “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.”
“Innovate U.K. is excited to fund this ambitious and complex project that achieved its final goal of running a large-scale fermentation at the High Value Manufacturing Catapult’s National Industrial Biotechnology Facility,” said Merlin Goldman, Lead Technologist – High Value Manufacturing at Innovate U.K. “TerraVerdae produced significant quantities of purified PHA material for product testing with partners and other potential customers. We hope to see the company complete its ambition of building a biorefinery facility in the North East of the U.K.”
“We are also fortunate to have collaborated on this technology with the UK’s Centre for Process Innovation,” continued 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 Centre for Process Innovation. “CPI has used its bioprocessing scaleup expertise to take the process from lab scale to commercialization.’’
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.