31st January, 2025
The BioLaMer project, funded by the European Innovation Council’s (EIC) Pathfinder Open funding stream, has been launched in April 2023 with a bold mission: to address global issues of food waste management and plastic pollution. Leveraging the unique abilities of Black Soldier Fly (Hermetia illucens) larvae, BioLaMer aims to develop sustainable biopolymers and value-added bioplastics, contributing to a circular economy and providing alternatives to petroleum-based plastics.
The BioLaMer project is co-ordinated by Dr Sibu Padmanabhan at the Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research (AMBER) Centre, Trinity College Dublin, collaborating with Prof Michael Morris. The consortium has partners from Italy, Spain and Portugal.
By capitalizing on the ability of Black Soldier Fly larvae to consume food waste, the project has made significant progress in producing two key biopolymers: polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) from larvae biomass through the development of a larvae bioreactor, and chitosan from larvae shells. In addition to these biopolymers, the TCD team has recently come up with an innovative biodegradable product, an all-natural Super-Absorbent Biopolymer (SAB). The SAB produced at the AMBER lab can absorb water up to 3,000 times its own dry weight, surpassing the absorbance capacity of conventional linear polymer-based super-absorbents. Dr Padmanabhan commented that the team is delighted with this invention as this SAB has already started showing enormous potential in diverse application fields, including food preservation, sanitary products, agriculture and horticulture. He added that they have successfully pitched this innovation at the EIC Tech Demo Day for Food Chain Technologies, and participated in the EIC Entrepreneurship Programme. Following this, a few members of the BioLaMer team has also taken further training to enrich their business development skills to help drive this innovation forward.
This innovation of super-absorbent Biopolymer material from the project have been recognized by EIC Innovation Radar. Our innovation was categorized under exploring phase which indicates that the innovations are in the early phases of technology readiness, with strong commitment, focused on turning technology into market-ready products. Dr Padmanabhan added that they are in the patenting stage of this innovation.
To ensure the sustainability and cost-effectiveness, the project is also performing comprehensive Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) analysis of its products and processes. Prof Morris commented that “these evaluations will help predicting the project’s contribution to climate change and advance a sustainable future”.
As BioLaMer has entered its third year, the focus is shifting towards exploring the commercial potential of bioplastics derived from these biopolymers. With the continued support of the European Innovation Council, the BioLaMer project remains dedicated to addressing the global challenges of waste management and plastic pollution, furthering the goals of the EU Green Deal and promoting a sustainable, circular economy.
For more information on the BioLaMer project and its progress, please visit CORDIS website , and follow our official page https://biolamer.eu or contact the team at biolamerp@gmail.com.
Press Contact
Dr Sibu Padmanabhan (Project Coordinator)
Email: chullans@tcd.ie
Contact no. +353 1 896 4246
