FROM PEEL TO BOTTLE

Every year, more than 400 million tons of plastic are produced worldwide. To overcome the problems for the environment development of degradable polymers and shift from fossil-based polymers to renewable plastics is needed.
At the same time Europe wastes over five billion kilos of citrus peel every year. Most of this waste goes to incineration, where the valuable chemical components that the peel contains are lost forever. One of these components is limonene, a doubly unsaturated terpene which is the major component of orange oil (49%) and is therefore an abundantly available side product of the orange industry.
PeelPioneers has developed a bio-refinery concept that turns citrus peel waste into valuable chemical compounds and products, one of these chemicals being limonene. PeelPioneers aims to use the extracted material as fully as possible to benefit circular economy and therefore wish to study the potential of limonene for developing a polymeric material, which can be used for packaging e.g. bottle or pack for freshly pressed orange juice. The Centre of Expertise of Biobased Economy of Avans University of Applied Sciences has carried out studies on polymerisation of limonene and limonene-like monomers. Therefore PeelPioneers and Avans Centre of Expertise of Biobased Economy decided to join their forces in this “From Peel To Bottle” project to study the potential and pathways to meet this goal.