The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Co-operative State, Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES) is providing the grant to Cambridge, Mass.-based Metabolix.

The award “will fund a program designed to produce advanced formulations of bioplastic for use on commercial-scale equipment running at manufacturing speed,” Metabolix co-founder and chief scientific officer Oliver Peoples said in an Oct. 7 news release.

Peoples added that high density polyethylene used for blow molded bottles, containers and other products — more than 4 billion pounds per year, according to the American Chemistry Council —”is suitable for replacement by bio-based, biodegradable materials.”

The program funded by the grant seeks to improve formulations of Metabolix’s Mirel-brand bioplastic with the necessary physical properties required for blow molded parts at industrial scale, officials added. Mirel is a corn sugar-based polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) resin that is biodegradable when disposed of in natural soil and water environments, or in home industrial composting facilities.

CSREES “focuses on investing in science and solving critical issues impacting people’s daily lives and the nation’s future,” according to the release.

The award announcement adds to an already-busy year for Metabolix. Telles — the joint venture between Metabolix and agriculture giant Archer Daniels Midland — will open its first commercial-scale Mirel plant by the end of the year. The plant will have annual capacity of 110 million pounds and will be located next to an ADM corn mill in Clinton, Iowa.

At the NPE2009 trade show in Chicago this summer, Metabolix also announced development deals with consumer products maker Newell Rubbermaid, injection molder Nypro Inc. and compounder Teknor Apex Co.