Kickstart: EVs and a 'massive amount of plastics'

Anyone following the auto industry knows there have been a lot of announcements related to manufacturing electric vehicles and the systems to support EVs, including battery systems.

Ford Motor Co. did its part to maintain the flow of news with its announcement Feb. 13 that it will spend $3.5 billion on a new battery plant in Michigan that will employ 2,500 people.

But if you're wondering what that means for the plastics industry, here's something to consider from Entek International, part of Lebanon, Ore.-based Entek Manufacturing Inc., which will build two plants to make lithium-ion battery separator film made using a proprietary polyethylene. The company recently won a federal grant to support the plants in Indiana and Alabama. (More details on those and other Entek growth coming in the next few weeks.)

During a visit with the media Feb. 10 at the company's new site in Henderson, Nev., Entek CEO Larry Keith said the first plant, in Indiana, will produce 1.4 billion square meters of separator film. In comparison, Entek makes 400 million square meters of separator film for all of its lead acid business globally — and it supplies those standard batteries globally.

"There's been about 1.1 terawatts of battery capacity announced," by companies such as Ford and Tesla, he said. "Our first plant will produce 1.4 billion square meters [of film]. To service 1.1 terawatts will require about 10 billion square meters of separator.

"So that's less than 20 percent [of the need] with phase one," he said. "There is a massive amount of plastics and separator that is going to be required to support this industry."

Could cream of tartar improve your next batch?

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about whipping up meringues or cakes, but bioplastics.

A new study in the journal Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering says that adding cream of tartar or citric acid to bio-based and biodegradable plastics can improve the strength of a biopolymer much in the same way the powder can stabilize egg whites when they're whipped up in a recipe.

Karen Laird from our sister paper Sustainable Plastics writes that South Korean researchers and their colleagues "seasoned" the bioplastic poly(butylene succinate) — or PBS — with tartaric acid or citric acid to discover if either could improve the plastic's mechanical properties.

The downside is that the PBS blend they developed took longer to biodegrade vs. the standard material, "though that could be beneficial for food packaging applications in humid environments," Karen writes.

The plastics packaging industry has seen a lot of changes in 50 years, and Mike Wilkinson has seen a lot of them. But after a career in the converting industry that has included stints at Chambon, Titan/Atlas, Comexi, Kampf and Universal Converting Equipment, Wilkinson has decided it is time to retire.

"I have seen the transformation of the packaging industry from paper/cellulose-based materials to plastic materials and the rapid growth in packaging to preserve and protect food products," Wilkinson, better known as Wilkie, said in a news release from Universal announcing his retirement.

His work with Universal included helping to "open the door" with flexible packaging firm Bryce Corp. in the U.S., leading to an $8 million investment and the largest order received by Universal, the company said.