Biogenerated Polymers: An Enviromental Alternative

Abstract

Biogenerated polymers are of great interest in industry in general, due to the trend of reduced use of petroleum-derived materials. However, their development costs are high and the benefit is still low. Currently, biodegradable alternatives are available from biogenerated polymers approximately 10% of the plastics market. Its consumption is estimated at 50,000 tons/year in Europe, with a share of less than 1%. In this order of ideas, the objective of this revision is to show the importance of the production of biogenerated polymers in the manufacture of biodegradable materials, from their formulation that contains macromolecules of natural origin such as oligomers or monomers. To this purpose, we will discuss topics related to several types of biogenerated polymers, such as chitosan, starch, polybutylene succyanate and polylactic acid, which have been used for the development of biogenerated polymeric materials by different research groups.

Keywords

• Chitosan
• Starch
• Polybutylene succyanate
• Polylactic acid