Engineering Research Centers

Plasticulture Engineering Centre (CEP)
Goal: To create disruptive technologies and adapt existing plastic solutions in food security, overcoming barriers linked to socioeconomic megatrends and climate change
Coordinator: Telma Teixeira Franco
Host Institution: Center for Energy Planning, University of Campinas (NIPE-UNICAMP)
Business partner: Braskem

https://sites.google.com/view/ceplasticultura
+55 19 3521-1240
cepcom@unicamp.br

FAPESP Process 2021/05251-8
Term: Feb 2023 to Jan 2028

CEP is a multidisciplinary center that brings together experts from different areas, such as forestry, organic food production, protected cultivation of vegetables and fruits, technical-economic analysis, aquaculture, polymer science, recycling, circular economy, reverse logistics and design. Its goal is to develop, modify and validate disruptive plasticulture solutions that improve product performance and adapt existing plastic solutions for different crops, addressing specific problems.

With the support of FAPESP and Braskem, a global petrochemical company, the center will develop solutions that reduce costs, surmount barriers imposed by climate change, ensure food security, and verify that products placed on sale are healthy. Research will be conducted in close collaboration with agricultural producers and associations.

Its immediate goals include optimization of inputs and natural resources for food production, such as water, reducing agriculture’s environmental impact, and raising yields in order to meet demand from consumers.

Studies will be conducted to adapt solutions in polyethylene, polypropylene and PVC for use in crop covering, protected seedling preparation, storage of seeds in plastic silos, and packaging to protect food products during transportation to cities. Another research line will be development of new materials for storage and transportation of soybeans and other grain crops.

CEP is already promoting several education and dissemination actions, such as education on plasticulture for graduate students and the podcast "O Plástico é Agro".

RESEARCH AREAS

1. Disruptive solutions.
2. Modification and validation of existing plastic solutions to be applied in areas such as grains, vegetables, organics, forestry and tilapia
farming.

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

FAPESP and Braskem create center for research on use of plastics in agriculture
The new Engineering Research Center will be led by scientists affiliated with the University of Campinas’s Interdisciplinary Center for Energy Planning, in partnership with colleagues at universities and research institutions in São Paulo State, Brazil.

BV-FAPESP
https://bv.fapesp.br/en/auxilios/109852