Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
6
Bio-Based Materials
Antoine Rouilly
1
and Carlos Vaca-Garcia
1,2
1
National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse, France
2
King Abdulaziz University, Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials Research,
Saudi Arabia
6.1 Introduction
Man-made materials can be obtained from one of these three resources: minerals
(silica, etc.), fossil resources (crude oil, natural gas, etc.) and vegetal resources
(cotton, wood, etc.). The materials obtained from each of these are usually exclu-
sive to their resource (e.g. glass can only be made from mineral resources and
cellophane can only be obtained starting with vegetal resources). Sometimes, the
same material can be obtained from fossil or vegetal resources if more than one
transformation step is performed. For instance, polyethylene (PE) is the product
of the polymerisation of ethylene. This gas is obtained in the petrochemical indus-
try by steam cracking of light petrol molecules. It can also be obtained from the
gasification of cellulose followed by the Fischer-Tropsch process, as described in
Chapter 3. Consequently, the choice of both the source and the process depends
on the availability and price of the resource and the technical feasibility and
economics of the process.
A second approach to better understanding the development of new materials is
the following. If a present material becomes scarce or too expensive, another
material, more abundant and/or cheaper, can be used provided it fulfils the basic
