Starch-Filled Polyolefin Foaming Resin

About This Product

This is a powder compound in which 30 to 70 per cent of the mass is starch, a crop-derived carbohydrate, dispersed through a polypropylene or polyethylene matrix and supplied as powder for foaming. Three grades are built on the same base: general purpose, a flame-retardant version for sheet with a burn specification, and a high-elasticity version for foam that must recover after repeated compression.

For a buyer measured on renewable content the attraction is direct: between 30 and 70 per cent of the compound is starch in place of petroleum-derived polypropylene or polyethylene, and that fraction goes straight to the bio-based content of the finished sheet. The starch is not inert in the process either, since as a solid dispersed phase carrying bound moisture it gives nucleation sites in the expanding melt, and a fine, even cell structure depends on many nucleation sites rather than a few large voids. It must be said plainly that raising renewable content is not the same as biodegradability. Because the starch sits in a polyolefin matrix, this material is NOT biodegradable or compostable and does not meet EN 13432, ASTM D6400 or BPI. It must not be described or marketed as biodegradable or compostable. The reason is structural: the polyolefin phase is continuous and offers nothing for microbial attack to work on.

It is used in bio-based content substitution, foamed sheet production, renewable material sourcing and fossil polymer reduction.

Bio Green Oleo supplies the starch-filled polyolefin foaming resin as a raw material for processing on your own line, to specification on starch content, matrix polymer and grade; we do not produce finished articles.