JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #59 - August/September 2010 - 17

BUSINESS
Niche Market

Bio-based polymers: a revolutionary change
Limited fossil resources, their growing cost, public concern about climate change, and important breakthroughs in white biotechnology and related polymer technologies are all significant drivers to move from fossil-based polymers to bio-based polymers in all polymer categories and markets. Major global investments make it happen.
Most bio-based polymers are durable and the global volume of bio-based thermosets is currently larger than that of bio-based thermoplastics. The initial market interest in bio-based plastics came from producers of onetime-use applications or of applications that generate a lot of plastic waste.
Tab. 1: Biocompostable versus bio-based polymers

JAN RAVENSTIJN, FORMER GLOBAL R&D DIRECTOR VISITING PROFESSOR BIOPOLYMERS

he use of synthetic polymers is forecast to grow from 250,000 kt/ year in 2000 to more than 1,000,000 kt/ year by the year 2100 due to prosperity and world population growth. In such a case, we would need 25% of the current oil production to make plastics alone by the end of this century.

T

Biodegradability was considered to be the important property here seeing that we waste 3.7 billion plastic cups, 350 billion plastic bottles and 3,750 billion plastic bags every year. Still, focus is shifting slowly but surely from biodegradable to bio-based materials in an attempt to counter climate change. Biodegradation is a useful property in some applications, but

Compostable

Not Compostable
- High-density polyethylene (Braskem) - Linear low-density polyethylene (Dow 2011) - Natural oil polyols (NOP) - Polythioalkanoates (PTA) - Polyamides (PA-11, UNI-REZ®, PA-10,10) - Co-polyamides (Platamid®) - Polyvinylchloride (Solvay 2010) - Stereo-complex PLA - Aliphatic polycarbonates (Mitsubishi 2010 a.o.) - Polytrimethylterephthalate (PTT) - Polyethyleneterephthalate (PET) - Polyurethanes based on NOPs - Thermoplastic elastomers based on NOPs - Polyamides (PPA, PA-4,10 & PA-6,10) - Polyetherblockamide (TPE Pebax® Rnew) - Some unsaturated polyesters for composites - Some epoxies

It is a misunderstanding to think that biobased polymers are biodegradable since this is true for only a select few (Table 1).

Fossil-based

Economic (oil cost), ecologic (climate change) and technology (white biotechnology and bio-based polymers) developments are driving the change from fossil-based to bio-based polymers. The bio-route is reportedly cheaper than the fossil-route at oil prices above $50/ barrel. As the new technology develops, this cut-off point will further decrease while the performance spectrum expands rapidly. The cost-to-performance balance of many of these materials is already quite competitive. In order to achieve economic sustainability for other materials, efforts are focusing on economies of scale and on white biotechnology (Wave II feedstock moving away from competition with the food chain, process technology, metabolic engineering).

Partly bio-based

Bio-based

- Poly l-Lactic acid (PLLA) - Starch-based polymers (TPS) - Polyhydroxyalkanoates (most PHAs)

- Polybutylenesuccinate (some Chinese PBS) - Polyhydroxyalkanoates (some PHAs)

- Aliphatic/aromatic polyester like PBAT - Polybutylenesuccinate (PBS) & related polymers - Polyesteramides - Polyvinylesters - Polyvinylalcohol

Most polymers known on the market today, like: - Polyolefins (PE, PP PVC) , - Styrene polymers (GPPS, HIPS, ABS, TIPS) - Polyesters (PBT, PET) - Most epoxies - Most unsaturated polyester resins (UPR) - Phenol resins - Polyamides - Polycarbonate

No59 August - September 2010 / jec composites magazine

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JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #59 - August/September 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #59 - August/September 2010
