Bioplastics – today’s technical revolution

The production capacity for biopolymers and biofibres is on course to more than double from 2010 to 2015 and even pass the one million tonne mark before the end of this year – with wide implications for the nonwovens industry.

William Tittle, principal and director of San Francisco-based management and technology consulting firm Nexant, has recently referred to this growth as “the biggest technical revolution in my lifetime”.

“We are seeing today the transformation from a petroleum-based industry to a biomass, renewable-food-based industry,” he said. “This is a big deal and it’s happening as we speak.

“A wide variety of technologies are being developed for large, trillion-dollar, fungible commodity polymers like polypropylene and PET, because companies are eager to switch from volatile petroleum-based feedstocks to those that offer the promise of lower costs, lower environmental impact and more stability.”