The 2008 European Polylactic Production Technology Innovation of the Year Award has been awarded to PURAC, Sulzer Chemtech and Synbra Technology for their joint development of a new polymerization process that can produce polylactic acid (PLA) from a biorenewable source which can then be converted into expanded PLA bead foam.

This new technology will soon be used in Synbra’s BioFoam® product, which will complement their already wide range of polystyrene foam products. The first parts are expected to be on the market by late 2009.