Bioploymers from renewable resources .......

Using renewable resources has hit the top of the science agenda and now is the time for all the old paper chemical products developed from renewable resources to be put back on the table. There have always been projects based on renewable resources but most were before their time and rejected in favour of traditional, lower cost materials based on petrochemicals. In the early days of Biopol, a biodegradable 'plastic', there were many efforts to develop applications in papermaking (eg biodegradable barrier coatings) but the projects struggled to be commercially viable.

Paper chemicals suppliers had started to replace mineral oils (eg emulsion retention aids, defoamers) with plant oils; there have always been surfactants based on plant or animal-derived fatty acids; steric acid has been widely used in de-inking; and there are many other examples of the use of renewable resourced-based paper chemicals. With the increased cost of oil and the 'climate change' drive to using bio-rawmaterials there has never been a better opportunity to engineer new bioproducts. There are exciting advancements in engineering new biopolymers (see the DuPont announcement), and an opportunity to commercialise many new pulp and paper biochemicals in the future.

Just a word of caution - there is no guarantee that raw materials from plant origin will provide a cost-effective and 'green' source of raw materials. The biofuel story remains controvertial and there are questions regarding the environmental impact and sustainability of making more land available for producing biofuel - prices of raw materials from bio-sources have increased so the price balance between petrochemicals and renewable sources will determine the future competitiveness and viability of the two sources.