Hessicher Rundfunk Radio interviews CO2BioClean team

CO2BioClean featured significantly on 14 August on Hessicher Rundfunk Radio in Germany with the repeat broadcast of an interview by Ursula Meyer with company founder Dr Fabiana Fantinel, and team member biochemist Moritz Tettenborn as part of a report on new plastic alternatives.

You can listen to the interview (in German) here:

HESSICHER RUNDFUNK INTERVIEW OF CO2BIOCLEAN

Below is a transcript of the interview in English:

Plastic is now everywhere – high up in the mountains and in our oceans. We are at risk of drowning in waste, while the global community struggles to agree on how to reduce plastic pollution. Yet, there are already solutions – including in Hesse. Ursula Mayer visited a startup that specializes in bioplastics, which can be produced in an environmentally friendly way and are easy to dispose of:

Right in the middle of the Frankfurt Höchst Industrial Park stands the pilot plant of CO2Bioclean. It consists of several interconnected containers. Here, plastics are produced in a very special way, explains Moritz Tettenborn, a biochemist and employee of the company. The main role is played by bacteria, which can be found, for example, in moors:

“We feed bacteria with CO₂, and from that we produce a bioplastic. This plastic is already in use, for example in coffee capsules or fruit stickers.In the long term, the company aims to produce additional packaging, such as plastic bags and shampoo bottles. The material is also set to be used in cosmetics and clothing.”

It can be used in many ways, and the special thing about it, says Tettenborn., is that if you were to bury it in your garden, it would decompose. This, in the end, helps to reduce plastic waste in the environment.

The entire project is a matter of the heart for CO2Bioclean’s founder, Dr Fabiana Fantinel:
“I am a chemist, and I spent my whole career working on traditional plastics and then came to bioplastics, because of sustainability. With the production of conventional plastics, additional CO₂ would be generated. Here, existing CO₂ is used – for example, from cement or energy production. This gas is pumped into stainless steel tanks at the pilot plant.”

A fermentation process begins, similar to brewing beer, explains biochemist Moritz Tettenborn: “We take our bacteria and put them into the liquid in the bioreactor, where they are stirred and consume the substances we feed them, such as CO₂ gas, which enters the liquid and can then be consumed by the bacteria. In this way, bioplastic is created, which is then filtered out of the liquid”.

Tettenborn holds up a glass containing small white granules – from which all kinds of plastic items can be molded. Research into bioplastics has been going on for years, says Tettenborn, but: “In terms of costs, one must clearly say that bioplastics, including CO₂-based bioplastics, are still more expensive today than conventional fossil-based plastics. But it must also be said that fossil plastics do not include many of the costs they impose on the environment.”

After all, disposing of conventional plastics also costs money.
Therefore, the startup is hoping for new EU-wide regulations to make sustainably produced plastics competitive.