AIMPLAS launches MOBACT Project to develop bio-based solutions for health sector

AIMPLAS, Plastics Technology Centre, is developing the MOBACT Project with funding from the Valencian Innovation Agency (AVI).

The MOBACT project, funded by the Valencian Innovation Agency (AVI), is developing bio-based solutions as an environmentally sustainable alternative to metal in order to fight the current major public health problem of hospital-acquired infection.

The project, which will end with the validation of its results in a real hospital environment, involves encapsulating substances so they can be applied both as a furniture coating and an injection product produced at high manufacturing temperatures.

The technology centre’s research is aimed at obtaining new materials based on active substances with bacteriostatic or bactericidal capacity that can be applied as coatings to furniture and surfaces or for mass production of injected parts that prevent the accumulation and proliferation of microorganisms.

Ensuring that the materials are environmentally sustainable is another project goal and work is being done with compounds of renewable origin as alternatives to metal compounds, which have traditionally been used for these solutions because of their resistance to the high temperatures of different transforming processes.

The new bio-based compounds will be encapsulated in polymer matrices so they can be used as water-based varnishes for furniture and surface coatings and for mass production of injected products.

The project is being implemented by a consortium made up of AIMPLAS, the Institute of Materials Technology of the Universitat Politècnica de València, the companies Lamberti and Industrias Tayg, and the La Fe Hospital Health Research Institute.