The successful PHA World Congress, organized by bioplastics MAGAZINE together with GO!PHA, goes into its third edition. After a 2018 and 2021 and a digital conference in 2020, the conference is now going to the USA.
On October 10 and 11, 2023, the 3rd PHA World Congress will be held in Atlanta. At this hybrid event, online-participation is possible as well as on-site in Atlanta. As the whole event will be recorded, timezones should not be a problem, as all presentations can be viewed conveniently from a video-on-demand playlist until the end of this year.
PHA (Poly-Hydroxy-Alkanoates or polyhydroxy fatty acids) is a family of biobased polyesters that, in addition, is fully biodegradable in almost any environment, including fresh and seawater.
As in many mammals, including humans, that hold energy reserves in the form of body fat there are also bacteria that hold intracellular reserves of polyhydroxy alkanoates. Here the micro-organisms store a particularly high level of energy reserves (up to 80% of their own body weight) for when their sources of nutrition become scarce. Examples for such Polyhydroxyalkanoates are PHB, PHV, PHBV, PHBH and many more. That’s why we speak about the PHA platform.
This PHA-platform is made up of a large variety of bioplastics raw materials made from many different renewable resources. Depending on the type of PHA, they can be used for applications in films and rigid packaging, biomedical applications, automotive, consumer electronics, appliances, toys, glues, adhesives, paints, coatings, fibers for woven and non-woven and PHA products inks. So PHAs cover a broad range of properties and applications.
The congress will address the progress, challenges and market opportunities for the formation of this new polymer platform in the world. Every step in the value chain will be addressed. Raw materials, polymer manufacturing, compounding, polymer processing, applications, opportunities and end-of-life options will be discussed by parties active in each of these areas. Progress in underlying technology challenges will also be addressed.