Researcher’s work in bioplastics leads to $1.4 million contract

HNEI researcher Jian Yu.

Jian Yu, a Hawaiʻi Natural Energy Institute (HNEI) researcher, has signed an exclusive global research contract with Bio-On, an Italian intellectual property company, representing a $1.4 million investment.

Yu’s research focuses on new technologies to produce bioplastics from inexpensive feedstocks such as wood chips, agricultural residues and domestic wastes. The bioplastics can be molded and shaped like oil-based plastics, but are completely degraded into benign products (carbon dioxide and water) in the environment. The research will also make the bioplastics more ductile for broader applications such as films and fibers.

Read more about it in the UH System News, Hawaii News Now, and Pacific Business News.