Construction and initial operation of a plant for the determination of the ultimate aerobic biodegradability according to DIN EN ISO 14855-2:2018

The aim of this work was to design and construct a plant for the determination of the ultimate aerobic biodegradability according to DIN EN ISO 14855-2:2018 and to conduct first composting experiments in order to validate the plant. Three experiments could be conducted. In the first experiment, Total Corbion Luminy® L130 PLA was tested on biodegradability in a simulated industrial composting environment and no increased development of carbon dioxide compared to the blank could be detected, indicating that no biodegradation occurred. Hydrolysis experiments with subsequent determination of change in molar weights measured with GPC proved the ability of the material to be hydrolysed but the cause of nonappearance of biodegradation remained unclear. The second experiment using a PLA sample material provided by Fraunhofer UMSICHT yielded in observable biodegradation but maximum degrees of biodegradation in references and samples fell short of expectations. In the third experiment, a bio-based PU foam provided by Polymer Engineering department of Fraunhofer ICT was proven not to be biodegradable according to DIN EN ISO 14855-2:2018 with a final degree of biodegradation of around 5.5%. Even though the plant was constantly improved, further testing is necessary to finally validate the plant.