AIM-PACE is developing an artificial intelligence (AI)-guided materials pipeline that turns residual carbon streams into high-performance PHA thermoplastics for electronics packaging and wearable healthcare technologies.

Plastics used in healthcare devices and electronics packaging must combine strength, thermal stability, barrier protection, electrical performance, and reliable industrial processing. Fossil-based polymers provide these properties at scale, but their production and disposal create long-term environmental problems.

AIM-PACE is addressing this challenge by developing a new generation of circular polyhydroxyalkanoate materials. Running from June 2026 to May 2030, the project brings together expertise in artificial intelligence, biotechnology, materials modelling, polymer processing, manufacturing, recycling, safety, regulation, and social assessment.

Polyhydroxyalkanoates, commonly known as PHAs, are thermoplastic polymers produced by bacteria. They can be made from renewable and residual carbon sources and can biodegrade under suitable conditions. However, current commercial PHA grades still face limitations in cost, availability, processability, and performance.

AIM-PACE does not treat PHAs as a ready-made replacement for every conventional plastic. Instead, it will redesign and adapt them for applications in which several demanding properties must be delivered at the same time.

AI as a materials co-designer

Traditional materials development relies on repeated cycles of formulation, production, and testing. This approach becomes slow and resource-intensive when researchers must optimise many properties simultaneously. Improving toughness, for example, may affect processability or biodegradability, while changing a film’s flexibility may influence its barrier performance.

At the centre of AIM-PACE is an agentic AI platform. This is a system designed to pursue defined materials-development goals, recommend promising candidates, and identify the experiments most likely to improve the results.

The platform will combine information from scientific literature, public databases, partner data, computer simulations, laboratory experiments, pilot production, and sustainability assessments. Predictive and generative models will use these inputs to propose PHA compositions, formulations, and processing conditions.

The AI will not make final decisions in isolation. Researchers will manufacture and test the recommended candidates, evaluate their performance, and return the results to the platform. This creates a human-in-the-loop, design-build-test-learn cycle in which each round of experimental evidence improves the next set of recommendations.

AIM-PACE will also use multi-objective optimisation to balance competing requirements. Rather than selecting a material solely because it is strong, biodegradable or easy to process, the system will search for the best combination of properties for each intended application.

From residual carbon to PHA

AIM-PACE will use Europe-sourced biogenic COâ‚‚ and organic residual streams as carbon inputs for PHA production. At least 80% of feedstocks will be sourced from agri-food residues and industrial side streams.

Different residual streams require different preparation routes. Paper-mill sludge and other biowaste can be converted into organic acids that PHA-producing bacteria can consume. Recycled paper pulp and crop residues can be broken down into fermentable sugars. Biogenic COâ‚‚ provides another carbon source for microbial production.

Selected bacteria will use these carbon inputs to produce PHA polymers. The project will mainly work with naturally occurring strains from partner collections and public repositories, while using strain engineering where necessary to reach specific yield and polymer-composition targets.

Development will begin with automated laboratory screening before progressing to larger pilot fermentations. The recovered polymers will then be formulated, compounded, and converted into films or moulded parts.

For some materials, AIM-PACE will use reactive extrusion. This process modifies a polymer while it is being melted and mixed, allowing properties to be improved during industrial processing when biological production alone cannot provide the required performance. The approach will initially focus on materials for electronics packaging and can also provide an alternative route if other PHA formulations fall short of their targets.

Keeping this development chain in Europe is also part of AIM-PACE’s strategy. By linking regional feedstocks with PHA production, processing, manufacturing and recycling, the project aims to build four integrated EU-based value chains. This is intended to strengthen Europe’s resilience and strategic autonomy by reducing dependence on imported materials.

Four applications with different demands

AIM-PACE will validate its materials in four demonstrators covering flexible films, rigid components, healthcare products, and industrial packaging.

The first demonstrator will use printed PHA films as components for disposable electrocardiogram electrodes. These films must combine mechanical performance with printability, electrical conductivity, signal quality and biocompatibility.

The second demonstrator will produce housings for wearable biosignal-monitoring devices. These components require strength, electrical insulation, and resistance to conditions such as perspiration, ultraviolet exposure, and repeated cleaning.

The third demonstrator is a durable pill box. Its material must be suitable for precision moulding while providing toughness, chemical resistance, dimensional stability, and the potential for repeated use.

The fourth demonstrator consists of films and trays for industrial electronics packaging. These materials must protect sensitive components through an appropriate combination of mechanical strength, moisture and gas barriers, antistatic behaviour and compatibility with film extrusion and thermoforming.

The four demonstrators will move from laboratory development to pilot production and validation under conditions relevant to their intended use. This will allow AIM-PACE to test not only whether the materials perform well, but also whether they can be manufactured consistently using industrially relevant processes.

Designing circularity from the beginning

Circularity is built into the AIM-PACE development process. The project will consider material reduction, product reuse, mechanical recycling, industrial composting and biodegradation while the polymers and products are being designed.

Mechanical recycling will be the primary end-of-life route for all four demonstrators. Production scraps and used materials will be collected, shredded, reprocessed, and tested over several recycling cycles. The project aims for its materials to retain at least 80% of their relevant performance after at least three mechanical-recycling loops.

The wearable-device housings and pill boxes will also be assessed for reuse. Their durability and cleanliness will be tested through repeated washing cycles to determine whether they can remain functional over multiple uses. The project will also investigate whether less material can be used without compromising product performance.

Industrial composting will be considered for components that are unsuitable for recycling. AIM-PACE has set a target for its materials to achieve at least 90% biodegradation within six months under industrial-composting conditions.

The project will also study biodegradation in soil, freshwater and marine conditions. These tests are intended to understand what happens if a material leaks into the environment and to assess potential ecological risks. Environmental biodegradation is not being treated as a routine disposal method or a replacement for collection and recycling.

Data from recycling, reuse, and biodegradation tests will be returned to the AI platform. This will allow end-of-life performance to influence subsequent material designs rather than being assessed only after development has finished.

Safe and Sustainable by Design

A material cannot be considered sustainable solely because it is bio-based or biodegradable. It must also be safe for people and the environment, perform throughout its intended lifetime, and work within realistic manufacturing and waste-management systems.

AIM-PACE will apply the European Safe and Sustainable by Design framework throughout material development. Candidate materials will be screened before scale-up so that potentially problematic substances or formulations can be excluded early.

The assessment will cover chemical and material safety, environmental impacts across the life cycle, circularity, production costs, social effects and regulatory readiness. It will also consider impacts on workers, consumers, communities, and wider society.

The project will map the EU requirements affecting chemicals, packaging, electronics, waste, and sustainable products. Certification and labelling requirements will be examined alongside the technical development, so that promising materials are not prevented from reaching the market by avoidable regulatory or data gaps.

AIM-PACE targets up to 50% reduction in cradle-to-grave greenhouse-gas emissions per kilogram of material compared with fossil-based alternatives. It also targets 15% reductions in primary energy demand and water consumption. These are objectives that will be tested through life-cycle and technical assessments, not benefits that have already been demonstrated.

Connecting research with industrial and social needs

Industrial partners will help ensure that the materials address real manufacturing and product requirements. End users, recyclers, waste managers, policymakers, researchers and civil-society organisations will also be involved through consultations, collaborative sessions and demonstration activities.

Their input will support the development of guidance for integrating PHA materials into existing European collection, sorting, recycling and waste-management systems. The project will also examine public perceptions of bio-based products and identify factors that influence trust, acceptance and correct end-of-life behaviour.

An open-access platform is planned to make selected PHA data and predictive tools available to researchers and other users. The project will also produce circularity guidance, regulatory roadmaps, and recommendations for the future development and use of bio-based polymers.

The project’s success will depend on more than producing a promising polymer in the laboratory. The materials must perform in real products, move through pilot manufacturing, withstand reuse or recycling, meet safety and regulatory requirements and provide measurable environmental improvements over the plastics they are intended to replace.

Please note, this article will also appear in the 27th edition of our quarterly publication.