Bioplastic made from biopolymer of biomass stock like potato peel, orange peel and soya would be replacing synthetic plastic and synthetic rubber in consumer products like cars and mobile phones, said Amar Mohanty, bioproducts discovery and development centre, department of plant agriculture, University of Guelph, Canada, while speaking at the international conference of Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology (CIPET).
?There are 1.5 lakh metal and plastic parts in a car and green conscious brands like BMW and Toyota increasingly moving to bioplastic and biorubber materials in fabrication of parts like door panel, car console and switch panel. Global mobile phone brand Blackberry is tooling a mobile completely made out of bioplastic. Pepsico will be manufacturing bio-degradable PET bottles for its various fizz drinks from bioplastic material. These are bio-degradable material made out of biopolymers derived from potato and orange peel. Similarly, bio-rubber could be obtained from biopolymer of soya plant,? he said.
Mohanty said bioproducts worldwide are replacing carbon intensive synthetic petrochemical inputs. ?Roughly 4% of global petrol output is utilised by plastic and rubber chemical industry compared to 70% petrol guzzled up by transportation sector. The 70% consumption by transport sector yields a modest revenue of $375 billion against 4% utility of plastic and rubber chemical industry grossing a whopping revenue of $37 billion in per centage comparision.?
With the price of crude oil going through the roof, countries like China, US and Canada are investing heavily in bioeconomy that encompasses bioenergy, biomaterials like bioplastic and biorubber for economically and environmentally sustainable industrial development. The Canadian university professor debunked the food-fuel tradeoff in the bioeconomic transformation from non-renewable fossil-fuel based economy to renewable biomass based economy.
?Out of the 170 trillion biomass generated by planet earth per annum, only 6 billion is utilised for human economic activity. This is just 3.5%. Out of the 3.5% biomass, nearly 62% fulfills food requirement, 5% addresses chemical and clothing and the remaining 33% is harnessed for wood, paper and construction industries. There is still 96.5% biomass available to build a bioeconomy. It is myth that biofuel would gobble up corn and sugarcane cropping meant to meet human food requirement. Technology enables production of alcohol from bagasse instead of sugarcane juice. Similary, biomaterials like bioplastic and other biochemicals could be produced by crop residues,? he said. There are technology available to capture carbon emitted by plants to convert them into biodegradable plastic. The visiting professor said there are array of natural fibres that could be produced from plant and crop residue biomass that can be made use in farm gate to green industrial products.