Vacuum cleaners from sugar beets?

Royal Cosun was established more than a 110 years ago by Dutch sugar beet growers who united themselves in a cooperative. Today, the raw materials used by the six companies that make up the group have been expanded to include chicory, potatoes and other vegetables. The group processes these into food products, such as sugar and French fries, feed and food ingredients. Recently, as part of the drive for maximum utilization of its raw materials, the group has also begun focusing on the extraction of valuable substances from biomass for non-food applications. Residual products are used to produce biogas.
Seeking to further reduce its environmental footprint and to boost the sustainability of its products, Philips is looking at the possibilities of using bioplastics to replace the petroleum-based plastics it currently relies on. Coffee machines and vacuum cleaners are two of the products the company has said it is considering for this purpose. Together with Cosun company Suiker Unie in Groningen, research is being conducted to confirm the functionality of the biobased building blocks.

According to Alex Benschop of Cosun Biobased Products, the initial results are very promising. ”After several years of research we know that sugar beet components are suitable as polymer building blocks,” he said. “Combining forces with Philips, we want to realize the next step and develop the first applications. We hope that jointly we will be able to develop a more sustainable new material and a successful business case.” (KL)

source: Cosun, http://www.cosun.nl

images: Cosun, Philips (http://www.philips.com)