The development of bio-based alternatives to conventional olefin-based plastics represents a major focus of current research. However, many bio-based polymers remain limited in terms of processability across different processing technologies and in their application performance. While Polylactic acid (PLA) has been successfully established on an industrial scale over the last 20 years, polyethylene furanoate (PEF) has emerged as a promising biobased alternative or complement to polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in various applications such as food packaging, bottles and technical as well as high-performance fibers. Further, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) have been focussed, although they are still limited to injection molded and/or electrospun applications.

In our studies we successfully demonstrated the processing of PLA, PEF and also PHA nonwovens via meltblow technology. PEF was shown to be equivalent or even superior compared to PET and Polybutylenterephtalate (PBT) fabrics of similar grammage concerning achievable fiber diameters, mechanical strength and filtration performance. PEF as well as PLA can thus be considered as biobased alternatives, particularly for applications requiring thin layer geometries at elevanced temperatures. In addition, the potential of PHAs, especially poly(3–hydroxybutyrate (P(3)HB) has been demonstrated across...