Biobased polymeric materials product

The packaging industry has been constantly looking to replace glass with polymeric materials and has recently focused on biobased polymers. However, for very delicate food products such as beer or coffee, there is a challenge to keep the freshness of the food that is related to the lowest increase of oxygen into the pack. Salame et al [207] presented the Table 8.6 and proposed a relationship that will allow a rough estimation of the shelf life t ... 

Currently, polymeric composites based on WPCs have been used in various building components, for instance, decks, flooring, docks, window frames, and molded panel products [31]. Many recent research efibrts have been made to explore the use of fully biobased composite materials in order to alleviate stress... 

Carbon is the major basic element that is the building block of polymeric materials biobased products, petroleum based products, biotechnology products, fuels, even life itself. Therefore, discussions on sustainability, sustainable development, environmental responsibility centers on the issue of managing carbon (carbon based materials) in a sustainable and environmentally responsible manner. Natural ecosystems manages carbon through its biological carbon cycle, and so it makes sense to review how carbon based polymeric materials fit into nature s carbon cycle and address any issues that may arise. 

Industrial oilseeds are viable feedstocks for the preparation of polymeric materials, particularly thermosetting polymers liquid-phase polymers that are cured irreversibly via heat, irradiation, or chemical reactions to form an insoluble polymeric network. Paints, coatings, adhesives, foams, and gels are commonly thermosets. Biobased feedstocks are receiving increasing attentions as replacements for petroleum in the preparation of thermosets and other polymers due to the reduced environmental impact associated with their derivation (no mining involved, approximately neutral in the net production of the greenhouse gas, CO2) and increased cost competitiveness. 

Biobased polymers from renewable materials have received increased attention recently. Lactate is a building block for bio-based polymers. In the United States, production of lactic acid is greater than 50,000 metric tons/yr and projected to increase exponentially to replace petroleum-based polymers. Domestic lactate is currently manufactured from corn starch using the filamentous fungus Rhizopus oryzae and selected species of lactic acid bacteria. The produced lactic acid can then be polymerized into polylactic acid (PLA) which has many applications (Hatti-Kaul et al., 2007). However, so far, no facility is built to use biomass derived sugars for lactic acid production. More research needs to be done to develop microbes using biomass derived sugars for lactate production. 

Modern biobased lubricants are mainly based on rapeseed oil, sunflower oil, soybean oil, and animal fats. These oils easily undergo oxidation due to their content of polyunsaturated fatty acids such as linoleic acid and linolenic acid. Efforts have been made to modify the oils to provide a more stable material and a product more competitive in performance to mineral oil-based lubricants. This modification can involve partial hydrogenation of oil and a shifting of its fatty acids to high oleic acid content [21]. Other reported changes that address the problem of unsaturation include alkylation, acylation, hydroformylation, hydrogenation, oligomerization (polymerization), and epoxidation [20, 22]. 

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