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  • Rights: Kiwi Innovation Network Limited
    Published 23 July 2015 Referencing Hub media
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    The Biopolymer1 Network is a New Zealand-based research company focused on producing bio-based products such as sustainable2 packaging and ingredients for industry.

    The Biopolymer Network is a collaboration3 of three CRIs – Plant & Food Research, AgResearch and Scion. In 2015, the Biopolymer Network was nominated with a commercial partner, Barnes Plastics, for their ZealaFoam product in the KiwiNet Minter Ellison Rudd Watts Research and Business Partnership Award.

    Dr Nigel Larsen, Science Group Leader at Plant & Food Research, and Steve Ranford, a senior scientist with AgResearch, explain the research focus of the Biopolymer Network.

    Transcript

    Voiceover
    The Biopolymer Network is a New Zealand-based research company focused on producing bio-based products and processes for commercial applications.

    Steve Ranford
    The Biopolymer Network is a collaboration of three organisations – Plant & Food Research, AgResearch and Scion – and it’s involved with materials science essentially.

    Dr Nigel Larsen
    Talking about our interest in molecules4 that come from plant sources, like grains and pine trees, for example – they can be sustainably produced, and you can keep growing crops year after year.

    Steve Ranford
    These biomaterials can be used as the building blocks for replacing some of the materials that are not so good for the planet5, and we can turn them into useful materials to replace those that have a useful life and then can degrade easily afterwards.

    Voiceover
    The Biopolymer Network is creating a range of bio-based products that have strong commercial potential.

    Steve Ranford
    Functional packaging is one area. Personal care is another area. Gelling products.

    Dr Nigel Larsen
    A really good example of a versatile plant material would be barley. We can end up with a gel-like material that can be used as the base6 for personal care products, and we’ve been developing those in conjunction with at least two New Zealand cosmetics companies.

    Steve Ranford
    You’ll end up with products that – some of them look like flyers, some of them have to have some more work done on them perhaps, some of them won’t fly at all.

    Dr Nigel Larsen
    But that is one of the major drivers for us, because it’s easy for us to spend a lot of time doing research and then finding that something is not of use to industry at all because it costs too much to make.

    Steve Ranford
    The commercial partner will do some test marketing, because they need to get some direction to feed that back to us. So it becomes a chain of events from the marketplace to the innovators. The innovators are all listening to the feedback and bouncing off each other. You’ll have AgResearch staff coming over to Plant & Food Research and up to Scion and finding a solution to a particular problem that one of the innovators is trying to overcome.

    Dr Nigel Larsen
    It provides an opportunity for New Zealand companies to be first on the ground with new sustainably based industries.

    Acknowledgement
    Video courtesy of Kiwi Innovation Network Limited
    © Kiwi Innovation7 Network Limited, 2015

    1. biopolymer: Any large molecule in an organism that is made up of a repeating number of smaller components. Examples include proteins (made up of amino acids), starch and cellulose (made up of sugars) and DNA (made up of nucleic acids).
    2. sustainable: A way of using natural products so they are available for future generations.
    3. collaboration: Working together with a common purpose.
    4. molecule: Two or more atoms bonded together. The molecule of an element has all its atoms the same. The molecule of a compound has two or more different atoms.
    5. planet: In our Solar System, a planet is defined as an object that orbits the Sun, is big enough for its own gravity to make it ball-shaped and keeps space around it clear of smaller objects.
    6. base: In genetics: DNA is made up of four bases: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T). In RNA, the base uracil (U) replaces thymine. In chemistry: A molecule that takes up or accepts protons. A compound that reacts with an acid to form a salt.
    7. Innovation: The development of a new process or product that is then used by others.
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      biopolymer

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    2. Any large molecule in an organism that is made up of a repeating number of smaller components. Examples include proteins (made up of amino acids), starch and cellulose (made up of sugars) and DNA (made up of nucleic acids).

      molecule

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    4. Two or more atoms bonded together. The molecule of an element has all its atoms the same. The molecule of a compound has two or more different atoms.

      Innovation

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    6. The development of a new process or product that is then used by others.

      sustainable

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    8. A way of using natural products so they are available for future generations.

      planet

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    10. In our Solar System, a planet is defined as an object that orbits the Sun, is big enough for its own gravity to make it ball-shaped and keeps space around it clear of smaller objects.

      collaboration

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    12. Working together with a common purpose.

      base

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    14. In genetics: DNA is made up of four bases: adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T). In RNA, the base uracil (U) replaces thymine.

      In chemistry: A molecule that takes up or accepts protons. A compound that reacts with an acid to form a salt.