Current status & future perspective of Research & Development on bio-based polymers

摘要

As a result of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of 11th March 2011 and the subsequent nuclear power disaster, the energy question has come under close public scrutiny. There can be little doubt that the shift to utilisation of solar cells, wind generation and other forms of renewable energy is accelerating. Even before the unprecedented events of 2011, as the problem of global warming attracted increasing public interest, the production of energy and plastics from biomass had begun to arouse attention as a move towards the construction of a recycling society [1, 2]. The reason is that biomass is fixed carbon dioxide and despite the emission of carbon dioxide in using or burning the energy or products made from biomass, the global carbon dioxide concentration does not rise. Energy or plastics derived from biomass are thus seen as carbon neutral, and theirexploitation has additional importance in countering the depletion of fossil energy resources. Unlike C2 based oil refinery plastics, biomass plastics are C3-C6 based products, for which new supporting technology must be developed.