DBC's DBC Bioten™ PHA water-based barrier coating successfully passed the TÜV Rheinland evaluation and officially obtained the German DIN CERTCO industrial & household composting certification. It meets the requirements of international mainstream standards in terms of compostability and degradability. Dr. RASHID KHAN, product development engineer at DBC Innovation Center, said that the recycling and repulping rate of paper products using Bioten™ PHA bio-based water-based barrier coating is as high as 97%. In terms of processing efficiency, the coating can achieve high-speed coating of up to about 800 meters/minute in the paper-based coating process; in the field of paper-based containers, the molding speed of the disposable paper cup production line can reach up to 280 cups/minute, providing paper-based food packaging companies with a new option that combines high efficiency, high barrier performance and green and low-carbon attributes.
DBC is a technology company based on innovation in the application of new materials. The founder, Mr. Lin Fanqiu, has been deeply engaged in product development and material innovation practices for a long time, and has comprehensive and profound insights into "paper instead of plastic" food packaging barrier coatings. From the professional perspective of high-quality development and international competition of China's food packaging supply chain, he systematically thinks about material principles and product logic, and uses a first-principles approach to re-examine the future development of the industry and the innovative direction of relevant international rules.
Mr. Lin Fanqiu believes that from an objective point of view of material principles, it is difficult for the world to rely on a single material to meet all performance standards of products in actual use. Material companies should not challenge basic scientific principles in order to claim that they can create industrial-grade "perfect products" with 100% single materials. Bluephal fermentation material PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoate) is a type of material with excellent degradation performance and fast degradation rate in the bio-based material industry. The water-phased PHA emulsion prepared based on it is more conducive to accelerating the compost degradation process under suitable conditions while ensuring a high recovery and repulping rate of paper products.
He emphasized that the creators and leaders of China's biomaterials, especially innovative companies in PHA biomanufacturing, should proactively lead application-side needs from a professional perspective, instead of habitually "verbally satisfying" all the requirements of application product companies. They must adhere to scientific and technical logic, and avoid falling into "" The endless loop of "self-certifier trap" - repeated self-verification only in limited scenarios, thus inadvertently limiting the potential of bio-based materials to move towards large-scale and multi-field application innovation, thus putting the PHA industry into an existential crisis, and inevitably weakening the trust of international users in Chinese paper-based food packaging products companies.
From left, Frank Tian, general manager of the Greater China region of DIN CERTCO; Lin Fanqiu, founder/president of DBC Group; Dr. Frank Hezel, global vice president of BASF in Germany; Zhao Yongjuan, business director of BASF Asia Pacific dispersions and resins
Food packaging and barrier coating material companies have China's responsibility to create "real products" under the increasingly stringent standards and regulatory frameworks of various countries around the world: In the food packaging track, China itself is a leader. Whether it is the maturity or efficiency of the industrial chain, it is not easily comparable to other countries. High-quality products require the entire industry chain to jointly review their scientific nature and compliance. What can be done must be done resolutely - the paper-based packaging market is huge enough, and even excellent products with relatively higher costs have their own clear user groups. However, effective rules for the industry need to be established to avoid shoddy products and vicious low-price competition, which disrupt the motivation of innovative enterprises; for those that have not yet been achieved at the stage, it should be frankly stated that this will not necessarily affect sales. Practitioners should clearly define the target customer groups they are capable of serving.
Rather than blurring the boundaries of "theoretically non-degradable, actually degradable" on the final product, the industry needs to provide an open and clear explanation of the material combination and structure, so that regulators and policymakers in various countries can accept and support truly excellent products based on a full understanding of the true technical level. At the same time, it can also better meet the needs of users who pursue cost-effectiveness and truly care about actual degradable performance.
In fact, there are now more and more methods and tools that can test and verify the material composition of end-use products. This is not the "unique ability" of a few companies, but a scientific method that the entire industry can and should master and use. Only by being professional-based and product practical-oriented can the industry move toward a high-quality, large-scale, and sustainable development path.
In his view, the sustainable development of the industry requires scientists and engineers to carry out systematic and combined innovative research and development; on the basis of meeting the authoritative standards and certification requirements of various countries around the world, capable companies should continue to improve comprehensive performance on top of this, or by clarifying the performance boundaries and applicable scenarios of different series of products, so that companies in all links of the industry chain can clearly choose and use them. Lin Fanqiu pointed out that in the field of paper-based food packaging, "materials are contact-safe, do not contain microplastics, are easy to recycle, are easily compostable, are degradable, and bio-based source carbon reduction" is expected to become a global industry consensus. The success of the paper-based plastic food packaging industry depends on whether these principles can be supported by a truly implementable material system and process path; the consistency of sample testing and certification with industrial-grade products must be transparent and verifiable, and accept open and professional inspections. Only then can enterprises continue to develop, and China's paper-based product manufacturing can also develop strong international competitiveness.
DBC empowers the sustainable development of the paper-based packaging industry with PHA bio-based product innovation. Starting from first principles, it develops a bio-based, low-carbon, high-performance, and high-standard innovative product matrix to meet the application performance needs of different segmented scenarios. In the future, DBC will successively release systematic product solutions for PHA bio-based water-based barrier coatings for food packaging, continue to maintain close cooperation with TÜV Rheinland, and continue to promote the certification of Bioten™ PHA series products in accordance with relevant standards of DIN CERTCO, ABA, BPI and other authoritative organizations.
At the same time, Mr. Lin Fanqiu thanked the strategic partner BASF of Germany for its support in biomass material balance technology, as well as the PHA raw material partner Bluepha and the leading food cardboard company APP Sinar Mas for their strong support in technological innovation. DBC will focus on different base materials and application scenarios such as food cardboard, tissue paper, kraft paper, bamboo pulp paper, pulp molding, etc., strengthen innovative collaboration with manufacturing and processing equipment companies, continue to develop professional system product overall solutions, and help China's paper-based food packaging manufacturing companies build a professional, high-end, branded, and large-scale internationally competitive industrial cluster.
DBC BIOTEN will soon release a PHA bio-based water-based barrier coating system solution. Please stay tuned for the product matrix briefing session on DBC's systematic innovative solutions for paper-based barrier coatings!
