Biopolymers and Biocomposites: The green materials to build a plastic-less future

What is it about?

The current petroleum-driven economy has promoted an indiscriminate demand of single-use plastic, a material that takes thousands of years to degrade. Not just this, while dispersing through numerous ecosystems, it damages the environment till the point of no return. Biopolymers and biocomposites, biodegradable and eco-friendly alternatives of plastics, are finding wide application recently thanks to their structural complexity, flexibility and diversity. In this chapter, the authors summarise the latest key information about these materials, including their sources, processing, and usages.

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Photo by Brian Yurasits on Unsplash

Photo by Brian Yurasits on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Biopolymers are derived from natural flora and fauna and their synthetic equivalents. Based on their parent monomer, major biopolymers fall into categories of polysaccharides, polypeptides, and polynucleotides. Production or extraction of cellulose is one of the limiting steps of biopolymer processing from conventional sources. The authors discuss the processing and usages of biopolymers as bioplastics, in traditional cotton and paper industries, and newer fields such as 3D printing and biofuel production. Biocomposites are natural hybrid materials, typically made of building blocks that are ceramic, polymeric, or a combination of both and serve as organic matrix material. Production of synthetic bio-composites typically involves mimicking the hierarchical structures of natural sources, such as bone, teeth or hair; however, gaining the control over microscale mimicking process is one major challenge in developing synthetic biocomposites. KEY TAKEAWAY To overcome the roadblocks of biopolymer processing, the suitability of ligno-cellulosic feedstock or non-food biomass as source materials are being explored. Thermal or biochemical conversions are popular techniques, but in terms of efficacy and yield, the processes are in their infancy. To introduce biopolymers and biocomposites as sustainable mainstream alternatives to plastics, several technical and logistical bottlenecks need to be overcome.