Biofuels and Biopolymers

Biodegradable Plastics Applications

Bio plastics or biodegradable plastics are by chemical nature polyhydroxy alkanoates or PHAs. They are currently being produced in large amount by microbial fermentation process in industries. Among all the polyhydroxy alkanoates, polyhydroxy butyrate or PHB is the most important one as bio plastics.

The conventional plastics, made from coal or oil are not biodegradable. They survive 100s of years and are a major source of environmental pollution, often resulting in ecological imbalance. A heavy demand for biodegradable plastic materials has generated in the modern world. There are some attempts to chemically synthesise biodegradable polyesters such as polylactic acid and polyglycolic acid. The production of polyhydroxy alkanoates by fermentation is the preferred process for production of biodegradable plastics.

Biodegradable plastics can be composed of bio-plastics, which are plastics made from renewable raw materials. There are normally two forms of biodegradable plastic, injection molded and solid. The solid forms normally are used for items such as food containers, leaf collection bags, and water bottles.

Bioplastics can also be processed in very similar ways to petrochemical plastics such as injection moulding, extrusion and thermoforming. To improve their tensile strength, bioplastic polymers can be blended with their co-polymers or with other polymers