Importance of

BIOPOLYMERS &
POLYMERS
CONTENTS

 POLYMERS
 CLASSIFICATION
 APPLICATIONS
 POSITIVE POINTS
 NEGATIVE POINTS
 SOLUTIONS:FUEL, RECYCLING, PLASTIC ROADS, BIOPOLYMERS
POLYMERS
 A polymer is a large molecule,
or macromolecule, composed of many
repeated subunits.

 Polymerization is the process of combining

many small molecules known as monomers
into a covalently bonded chain or network.

 Examples include DNA, RNA, poly ethylene,

poly styrene, poly carbonate, poly propene…
APPLICATIONS
Automotive Field
Medical field
AEROSPACE APPLICATIONS

 Housings  Aircraft tray tables and arm rests

 Interior components  Aircraft windows and canopies
 Valve seats and seals  Air-return grills
 Slide rails  Avionics instrument panels
 Splines  Bearings and bushings
 Standoff insulators  Composite tooling
 Wear pads  Fasteners
 Wire wrap insulation  Gears and gear spaces
 Guides and stops
PLUS POINTS

 Polymers can be very resistant to chemicals.

 Polymers can be both thermal and electrical insulators.
 Generally, polymers are very light in weight with significant degrees of
strength.
 Polymers can be processed in various ways.
 Polymers are materials with a seemingly limitless range of characteristics and
colors.
 Polymers can be used to make items that have no alternatives from other
materials.
 THE
NEGATIVE
SIDE
WHAT WE CAN DO?
REUSE
RECYCLE
Levi’s uses recycled PET for
WasteLess denim

 Each pair contains an average of eight 12-ounce to 20-ounce PET water bottles.
 Levi Strauss & Co. has launched WasteLess—a new line of jeans made from a
fabric that incorporates recycled polyethylene terephthalate bottles (PET) and
trays gathered from municipal recycling programs in the U.S.
 Each pair of jeans is about 20 per cent recycled PET, the equivalent of about
eight 12-ounce to 20-ounce PET post-consumer bottles, the company says. The
plastic is sorted by colour, crushed into flakes and turned into polyester fibre
before being blended with cotton to create the WasteLess fabric. The colours of
the bottles used “adds a unique finish to the final product,” the company says.
 Plastic roads in INDIA

 While polymer roads in the US are made with asphalt that comes pre-mixed
with a polymer, plastic tar roads are a frugal invention, made with a discarded,
low-grade polymer.
 Every kilometer of this kind of road uses the equivalent of 1m plastic bags,
saving around one tonne of asphalt and costing roughly 8% less than a
conventional road.
 Dr R Vasudevan, a chemistry professor and dean at the Thiagarajar College of
Engineering in Madurai, came up with the idea through trial and error, sprinkling
shredded plastic waste over hot gravel and coating the stones in a thin film of
plastic. He then added the plastic-coated stones to molten tar, or asphalt. Plastic
and tar bond well together because both are petroleum products. The process
was patented in 2006.
 Plastics As Fuels
 Plastics are created primarily from energy feed stocks, typically natural gas or
oil. The hydrocarbons that make up plastics are embodied in the material
itself, essentially making plastics a form of stored energy, which can be turned
into a liquid fuel source.
 Plastics are collected and sorted for recycling. Then the non-recycled plastics
(or residuals) are shipped to a plastics-to-fuel facility, where they are heated
in an oxygen-free environment, melted and vaporized into gases. The gases
are then cooled and condensed into a variety of useful products.
 Depending on the specific technology, products can include synthetic crude
or refined fuels for home heating; ingredients for diesel, gasoline or kerosene;
or fuel for industrial combined heat and power.
 Companies sell the petroleum products to manufacturers and industrial
users, while fuels can help power cars, buses, ships and planes.
THE USE OF BIOPOLYMERS

– Biopolymers are either biodegradable which can be derived from renewable

and non renewable resources or non-biodegradable which can be derived from
renewable resources.
– Examples include cellulose, chitin, chitosan, PLA, starch, DNA , RNA, PHB,…
IMPORTANCE OF BIOPOLYMERS
 Plastics materials are used world wide today for multitude of application.
Most of these plastics are derived from petroleum and are not
biodegradable.
 The non renewable sources are decreasing steadily due to the high
consumption.
 Due to unorganized and improper disposal , non degradable plastics causing
harm to the environment.
 Derived from renewable resources such as edible and non edible crops.
 Reduces the dependence of fossil fuel.
 Carbon dioxide neutral and zero carbon foot print.
 Bio degradable and bio based has end of disposal options.
 ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
 Biopolymers can be sustainable, carbon neutral and are always renewable.
 Raw materials for biopolymers come from agricultural non food crops. Therefore, the
use of biopolymers would create a sustainable industry.
 In addition, biopolymers have the potential to cut carbon emissions and reduce
CO2 quantities in the atmosphere: this is because the CO2 released when they degrade
can be reabsorbed by crops grown to replace them: this makes them close to carbon
neutral.
 Biopolymers are biodegradable, and some are also compostable.
 Some biopolymers are biodegradable: they are broken down into CO2and water
by microorganisms.
 Some of these biodegradable biopolymers are compostable: they can be put into an
industrial composting process and will break down by 90% within six months.
 Biopolymers that do this can be marked with a 'compostable' symbol, under
European Standard EN 13432 (2000).
 Packaging marked with this symbol can be put into industrial composting processes
and will break down within six months or less. An example of a compostable
polymer is PLA film under 20μm thick: films which are thicker than that do not
qualify as compostable, even though they are biodegradable.
 In Europe there is a home composting standard and associated logo that enables
consumers to identify and dispose of packaging in their compost heap.
 Lets shake our hands with nature for
a better tomorrow

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