Recycling of biopolymers – The patent perspective

By M. Niaounakis. European Polymer Journal, 2019

158 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract The present study investigates the main recycling technologies of biopolymers, including bio-based and/or biodegradable polymers, disclosed in the patent literature. Most of the retrieved patents relate to the recycling of aliphatic polyesters, in particular PLA, which is nowadays the most commonly used biodegradable polymer. The main recycling technologies, which are examined, are sorting, mechanical recycling, chemical recycling (hydrolysis, alcoholysis, and thermal depolymerization with catalysts) and the relatively new enzymatic depolymerization of biopolymers. Currently, mechanical processing of post-industrial waste appears to be the only realistic option for the recycling of biodegradable PLA. Bio-based non-biodegradable polymers, such as bio-PET, bio-PE, bio-PA can be mixed with their fossil fuel-based counterparts and recycled in existing recycling facilities. Poly(ethylene furanoate) (PEF) can also be mixed with industrial PET in an amount up to 2%, and recycled. Despite the dynamic growth of biopolymers their waste streams are still small and scattered; and no separate recycling stream yet exists for PLA. On the other hand, there is much activity in patenting on the recycling of biopolymers. Most of the information presented in this paper is not to be found anywhere else, but in patents.

Subfields: Automotive Engineering, Biomaterials, Pollution

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/25b18c75f2f0b125ffc3dcafdeb6b64ea663c0bf

How researchers see this paper

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In Automotive Engineering

1. D. Komilis
2. P. Mckeown
3. Aimilia Karageorgiou
4. P. Calabrò
5. Matthew D. Jones
6. A. Folino

In Biomaterials

1. D. Komilis
2. P. Mckeown
3. Aimilia Karageorgiou
4. P. Calabrò
5. Matthew D. Jones
6. A. Folino

In Pollution

1. D. Komilis
2. P. Mckeown
3. Aimilia Karageorgiou
4. P. Calabrò
5. Matthew D. Jones
6. A. Folino

Citations in the corpus

• Biodegradation of Wasted Bioplastics in Natural and Industrial Environments: A Review (2020, background): “For example, PLA can negatively impact the traditional recycling processes of PET [77,110].”
• The Chemical Recycling of PLA: A Review (2020, background): “In the patent literature, there are several examples of alcoholysis reactions of PLA [94].”