With declining oil prices bioplastics will experience increased competition from fossil fuel based, volume plastics, particularly in the packaging market. Yet bioplastic companies will continue to demonstrate the same technical marketing business ingenuity they have exhibited over the past 25+ years by specialty feedstock/resin niche market development, by holding in place their existing technology, further focusing on added production efficiencies, and in some limited cases withdrawing from the bioplastic market segment as a result of non-competitiveness. This first Bioplastic Feedstocks article will be followed by a Bioplastic Materials and Bioplastic Applications reviews.
Editor’s Note:
This omnexus.specialchem.com articles provides an impressive overview of new conversion technologies for the manufacture of bio-based plastics. Some biomass-based products have been made since the 1920’s (e.g. Furfural). Furfural is one of the top 30 building blocks for bio-based chemicals and plastics.