High-barrier PEF juice bottles realize sustainable packaging breakthrough, empowering food and beverage preservation

• What is PEF ?

Avantium's PEF is a 100% plant-based and fully recyclable polymer used in a wide range of applications, including bottles, packaging, films and textiles, and offers not only sustainable benefits, but also superior barrier properties to extend the shelf life of food and beverages.

• What are the advantages of PEF?

1/Superior Barrier Property 

Research has proved that beverage bottles made of PEF materials are superior to PET bottles in many aspects, especially the superior performance of gas permeation barrier, PEF oxygen barrier is 10 times that of PET, the ability to block CO₂ permeation is 4 times that of PET, and the moisture barrier is 2 times that of PET, which is related to its structure:

1)In the molecular structure, the asymmetry and polarity of the furan ring increases the chain rigidity, which makes the chain segments not easy to turn over, decreases the ability to move, and hinders the diffusion of small molecules;

2)In the aggregated state structure, crystallization or other prompt molecular chain stacking dense, free volume reduction (physical aging) to impede the dissolution and diffusion of small molecules, to further improve the barrier property.

This can make the shelf life of the packaged product longer, so the material has broad application prospects in the field of high barrier packaging materials, high-performance fibers and engineering plastics.

2/Good thermal properties 

Compared to PET, PEF has better heat resistance (Tg of 86°C for PEF vs. 74°C for PET) and lower processing temperatures (Tm of 235°C for PEF vs. 265°C for PET). As a result, PEF is particularly well suited for the production of specific food and beverage packaging, such as films and plastic bottles.

3/Sustainability 

PEF is derived from biomass and has a 50-70% lower carbon footprint than petroleum-based materials. The high mechanical strength of PEF makes packaging made from the material thinner and lighter, which can lead to a reduction in packaging material usage by more than 20%. In addition, products made from PEF can be recycled directly or converted to CO2 through incineration, and preliminary experiments have shown that PEF can be degraded under natural environmental conditions.

PEF has more excellent physical-mechanical properties, and has broad application prospects in the fields of high-barrier packaging materials, high-performance fibers and engineering plastics. Although there are still great challenges in the synthesis technology of PEF and its key monomers, and in order to promote the processing and application of PEF, PEF is still in the stage of modification research and exploration to achieve industrialization, but with the FDCA and PEF synthesis technology, PEF structure-properties and modification technology of the research and development of the depth, is expected to achieve the industrial production of high-performance PEF materials in the near future. and application in the near future. Let's look forward to the further development of PEF in the future!