ABSTRACT
In the conventional market, petroleum-derived polymeric products are the mainstreams of the market trends and customer needs. Due to the rising awareness worldwide about environmental impact of wasted petroleum polymers disposed in environment for 100 years and contaminated in food chains, the demands of sustainable, biodegradable and environmental friendly bioplastics and biocomposites are increased. Platform chemicals, obtained from biomass, are building blocks or monomers for productions of value-added biochemicals, polymers and composites. To make the utilizations of platform chemicals become industrialized viable, the biorefining process to convert biomass to platform chemicals must be well designed with suitable supportive technology and collaborations with downstream manufacturers. This chapter aims to draw the flow diagram of biorefining process and analyzes the positions of platform chemicals in competition with petroleum derived chemicals in polymer industries. The current situations and applications of platform chemical-derived polymers in conventional and emerging markets are also revealed here.
