Fossil Fuel-based vs. Bio-based Polymers: Technology and Market - Part 2

摘要

Polymers are an industry with a huge global market of over $900-bn. Although polymer use was initially focused on natural bio-polymers, further R&D efforts developed plenty of fossil fuel-based polymers. Currently, only a limited area of polymers is bio-based. Because of their combination of unrivalled properties and low cost, polymers are the workhorse material of the modern economy. Their use has increased twenty-fold in the past half-century, and is expected to double again in the next 20 years. Today, nearly everyone, everywhere comes into contact with polymers on a daily basis.