The Potential of Environmental-Friendly Biopolymers as an Alternative to Conventional Petroleum-Based Polymers

Fossil energy and other related chemical sources are depleting in addition to their negative impact on environment. It has been already accepted by the scientific community that the greenhouse effect is mainly due to the combustion of fossil fuels in addition to the destruction of green areas for construction or industrial development purposes. This issue can be resolved by providing alternatives to the petroleum based products and establishing a way to balance the effect of reduced green areas. One of the main products of crude oil is polymers which are used almost in every product nowadays because of their fascinating properties and ease of manufacturing. However, those polymers are known to have serious environmental problems, whether because of the source of production or after service treatment of manufactured polymeric products. For this reason, the study of bio/bio-based polymers which are made from renewable sources becomes an active area of research among the research fraternities for the last few years, keeping the focus of not affecting the quality of life standards. Biopolymers have the advantage of reduced impact on environment especially to CO₂ emissions. This is because the source of biopolymers is mostly from agriculture which balances the emissions of CO₂ since the growing biopolymers feedstock remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The main challenge of adopting biopolymers as a replacement to petroleum-based polymers is due to their thermal instability at relatively low temperatures in addition to the low mechanical strength. However, there are still many applications especially in the biomedical sector where biopolymers are considered thermally stable with acceptable mechanical strength. Hence any study on bio based polymers will draw attention and encouragement of researchers. Biopolymers can also be used for structural applications if manufactured in specific material structures. This article presents a discussion about the potential of biopolymers and bio-composites to replace the petroleum-based polymers considering their mechanical properties like relaxation modulus and impact absorption. At the beginning, the article will discuss the forms of material structures that may explore the potential of biopolymers to a comparable level to petroleum-based polymers in terms of structural strength, followed by two case studies to demonstrate the possible potential. Recycling of bio/bio-based polymers is discussed to close the cycle of biopolymers as a potential replacement to Petroleum-based polymers. Polylactic acid (PLA) and the green high density polyethylene (GHDPE) are the two biopolymers presented as case studies for structural applications and impact attenuation respectively.