Introduction
Sustainability has become a global trend that all countries keep achieving, especially after the recent events that happened in previous years, such as water scarcity, disease, and burning forests. All of that happens because of industrial production, or the main reason for it.
Now, there is a new way, or we can say it is innovation or revolution in the industrial production world. The revolution comes from Transforming Wastewater into High-Value Bio-polymers. Research shows wastewater treatment plants can produce bio-polymers as sustainable alternatives to oil-based products.
Table of Contents
Biopolymer
Researchers are developing methods to extract valuable bio-polymers from wastewater treatment plants. These bio-polymers offer sustainable alternatives to oil-based products, with potential applications in industries like construction and paper. This revolution aims to facilitate industrial-scale production and improve resource recycling. The perspectives are enormous since you’re taking a waste product and turning it into a high-value product.
What do you mean by Biopolymer?
Bio-polymers are the organic substances present in natural sources. It originates from the Greek words bio and polymer, which represent nature and living organisms. Bio–polymers are macromolecules made of repeating units.
The bio-polymers are found to be biocompatible and biodegradable, making them useful in different applications, such as packaging materials in the food industry, drug transport materials, medical implants like medical implants organs, wound healing, tissue scaffolds, and dressing materials in pharmaceutical industries.
Types of biopolymers
The main four types of Bio-polymers:
1- Sugar based Bio-polymer
Bio-polymers based on sugar can be produced by blowing.
2- Starch based Bio-polymers
Bio-polymers based on starch act as natural polymers and can be obtained from vegetables.
3- Cellulose-based Bio-polymers
This polymer is composed of glucose and is primarily obtained from natural resources, plant
cellular walls, like cotton, wood, wheat, and corn.
4- Bio-polymers based on synthetic materials
Bio-polymers based on Synthetic compounds are also used for making biodegradable polymers
such as aliphatic aromatic copolyesters are obtained from petroleum.
They are compostable and biodegradable completely though they are manufactured from synthetic components.
Advantages and disadvantages of biopolymers
| Biopolymer | Advantage | Disadvantage |
| Natural Bio-polymers | Biologically renewable. Biodegradable. biocompatible. Non-toxic. bioadhesive material. biofunctional. | Less stable. Low melting point. High surface tension. Structurally more complex. |
| Synthetic Biopolymers | Biocompatibility Higher reproducibility Better mechanical Chemical stability | Toxic. Non-biodegradable. Expensive synthesis procedure. |
Market of biopolymers
In 2018, the global market of biopolymers showed significant growth; the estimated size was 12 billion dollars. It is expected that from 2019 to 2025 the biopolymer market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 19%.
Biopolymer Industry
The use of biopolymers in the industrial sector is widely used. Biopolymers enter in many sectors like:
- paper
- building materials
- Flocculation material (where small particles clump together and settle as part of the water purification of harbor sludge, lakes, and wastewater treatment plants.)
Conclusion
Using Biopolymer will increase environmental awareness of sustainability, controls on pollutants, and municipal solid waste disposal are all driving forces for developing biopolymer-based packaging materials. This is from the environmental side. From the business viewpoint, biopolymers can open a new chance for businessmen and owners to invest in wastewater treatment without getting involved in high costs.
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Sources
https://ejchem.journals.ekb.eg/article_29781_8069b16d7c2a303752c45af31e259943.pdf
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8912672/#sec5-polymers-14-00983
