Production biobased polymers

Using natural biobased polymers with partial modification to meet the requirements (e.g., starch)  

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I he future of sustainable plastics can be described as excellent growth, especially for biobased plastics. In 2010, bioplastics comprise less than 1% of the 181 million metric tons of synthetic plastics (Nampoothiri et al. 2010). Biobased polymer production capacity is expected to triple from 3.5 million tons in 2011 to 12 million tons in 2020. Bioplastics are expected to comprise of 3% of the global polymer production in 2020 (Nova 2013). 

TABLE 10.5 Biobased Polymer Production from Renewable Sources and Intermediates ... 

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. 

Industrial biotech represents a broad range of applications, including biobased products, bioenergy, biobased polymers, and national defense. The Department of Defense, for example, has a program to build mobile biorefineries that recycle kitchen waste. 

Another area is the production of chemical intermediates from renewable feedstocks. Cargill-Dow and Dupont are just two of the companies beginning to market biobased polymers and plastics to replace petroleum based polymers. Again, the fermentation fundamentals originally developed for food manufacturing continue to apply to a wide variety of products. 

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 ... 

Biobased polymers or bioplastics, how they are often called, are chemical products made from monomers from plant- or crop-based resources. They have petrochemical equivalents with the same chemical structure and same properties against which they have to compete in the market. They can win this competition only through a lower price, tax advantages or governmental subsidies. 

Figure 9.4 presents a tabular comparison of petrochemical and biobased polymers as to primary energy demand of production and GHG emissions. The savings from production of biobased polymers compared to petrochemical ones are found to be between 20 and 50GJ/t polymer and 1.0-4.01 GO2 eq/t polymer. 

Inc., and Teijin Ltd., which is known as Ingeo in the USA and Biofront in Japan. Another company, Purac, also produces biomedical application-oriented PLA-based materials under the PURASORB brand name. Figure 8.1 shows the synthesis, recycUng, and degradation of PLLA [13]. However, due to the recent initiation of the production of biobased polyethylene (PE) from bio-ethanol, PLLA is not the sole mass-produced biobased polymer. To forestall biobased PE and other biobased polymers that will be produced in the near future, high performance PLA-based materials must be developed to suppress their hydrolytic/thermal degradabiUty and increase their mechanical performance. 

Bechthold I, Bretz K, Kabasci S, Kopitzky R, Springer A (2008) Succinic acid a new platform chemical for biobased polymers from renewable resources. Chem Eng Technol 31 647-654 Berglund K, Andersson C, Rova U (2007) Process for the production of sucdnic acid. WO Patent WO/2007/046,767... 

Fig. 20.2 Schematic representation of origin and method of production of biobased polymers...

As biopolymers capture a larger market share, the measurement of their life cycle environmental impacts will be important to enable consumers and producers to identify more sustainable methods of use, production and disposal for such products. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool that quantifies the environmental sustainability of biobased polymers from cradle to grave. ... 

Biobased polymers are those made from natural or organic ingredients, such as starch from corn, potato, tapioca, rice, or wheat (Narayan 2006a, 201 lb). Biobased polymers can also be made from oils, such as palm seed, linseed, soy bean, or fermentation products, like polylactic acid (PEA), polyhydroxy alkanoate (PHA), and polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB). BPI World provides a listing of compostable plastic resins, bags, cutlery, and packaging (BPI World 2013). 

In 2015, the growth in biobased plastics is expected to be led by biopolyethylene and bio-PET. Table 10.4 lists the anticipated production volumes of biobased polymers (Market Update Bioplastics 2012). 

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