Biogenerated polymers: An enviromental alternative

Abstract

Bio-generated polymers are generally of great interest for Industry, due to the tendency of reducing the use of materials derived from oil. Nonetheless, its development costs are high and the benefit is still too low. Nowadays, in about ten percent of the plastic market, there are biodegradable alternatives available for bio-generated polymers. Its consumption is estimated at 50.000 tons per year in Europe, with an inferior amount of 1%; in this regard, the main objective of this review is to expose the relevance of bio-generated polymer production in the manufacturing of biodegradable materials, from its formulation, which contains macromolecules of natural origin such as oligomers o monomers. With this goal, some topics will be examined related to several types of bio generated polymers, such as chitosan, starch, polybutylene succyanate, and polylactic acid, which have been used in the development of bio generated polymer materials by different research groups.