The work developed in POLYMEER is structured in six work packages. WP4, WP5 and WP6 are cross-cutting activities, covering sustainability, environmental and techno-economic aspects, dissemination, communication and exploitation, and project management. The remaining work packages focus on specific research areas.
WP1
Brewers’ spent grain, bio-based building blocks and polymers (Leader: UNIPG). Fractionation of the BSG into high-quality fractions, synthesis and characterisation of the resulting monomers and macromers and development of polymers and co-polymers.
WP2
Bioplastics formulation, compounding and characterisation for application in agriculture, packaging and textile fields (Leader: UNIROMA1). Characterisation of the biobased polymers according to the requirements for their processability in the fields of application: film for the agricultural sector and tertiary packaging and textile for the automotive sector. This WP includes the production of the compounds at lab scale, their formulation, testing of their properties and evaluation of their end-of-life biodegradation and recyclability.
WP3
Process scale up to pilot (Leader: Bio-mi). Demonstration of the feasibility of the process at industrial scale by testing a pilot process comprising the whole process, from the fractionation of the BSG to the production of the film for agriculture, for packaging and textile for automotive, including the recycling process of the bioplastics.
WP4
Sustainability assessment and end of life scenarios (Leader: Lomartov).
Analysis of the technoeconomic feasibility, cycle sustainability, safety and the end-of-life scenarios for the developed bioplastics and evaluation of the best conditions for the social acceptability of the developed materials.
WP5
Dissemination, Communication and Exploitation (Leader: Zabala). Focused on the definition and implementation of strategies for the exploitation, dissemination and communication of the project activities and results to give visibility to the project and increase its impact.
WP6
Project coordination (Leader: UNIPG). Dedicated to the strategical organisation and coordination of the POLYMEER project, this WP focuses on activities such as following up the project, administrating it and updating its status to the European Commission and assuring the data management, protection, and privacy during all the project duration.