What Is The Structure Of The Bio-Based Materials Industry Chain? What Is The Depth Of Relationship With The Polymer Industry?

With a wide range of sources, flexible means of acquisition, rich performance and diversified application scenarios, bio-based materials are currently moving from laboratory research and development to industrial production and large-scale applications, and are expected to gradually replace some fossil-based materials in the future.

2 Bio-based plastics and polymers industry

Biobased plastics: applications are mainly in packaging and consumer goods, textiles, etc.

A polymer is a compound of high molecular weight consisting of one or several structural units linked by covalent bonds. Depending on the source, polymers can be divided into bio-based polymers and fossil-based polymers.

There is a wide range of bio-based polymers and most fossil-based polymers have their counterparts or similar bio-based products. The demand for biobased plastics is expanding due to the carbon reduction and renewable advantages of biomass as a source compared to petroleum-based plastics.

Biobased polymers have been developed to a certain extent; however, compared to traditional polymers, biobased sources are still relatively small in volume and variety and are not yet able to fully replace petroleum-based products in some applications.

Biobased plastics are used in a wide range of industrial and domestic applications, with packaging and consumer goods, and textiles being the most important areas of application. Biobased plastics can be divided into degradable and non-degradable biobased plastics according to their biodegradability.

According to European Bioplastics, biobased plastics account for approximately 1% of the plastics produced each year globally. In 2020, global production capacity for biobased plastics amounted to 2.111 million tonnes, of which 1.227 million tonnes were biodegradable and 884,000 tonnes were non-biodegradable. By the end of 2021, Asia will have a total of 49.9% of the world's bio-based plastics production capacity.

Classification of bio-based polymers: biodegradable and non-biodegradable bio-based materials.

In 2020, global bio-based plastics production capacity will reach 2.111 million tonnes, of which 1.227 million tonnes will be biodegradable, mainly PLA and starch-based plastics, each accounting for 32%; non-biodegradable capacity will be 884,000 tonnes, of which PA (polyamide) and PE (polyethylene) will account for the largest share.

PE (polyamide) and PE (polyethylene) accounted for the largest share, at 28% and 25% respectively. With the tightening of environmental requirements in various countries and the development of the environmental industry, the proportion of biodegradable plastics in the production capacity of bio-based plastics will further increase.