ABSTRACT
Rising concerns about the future availability of energy resources and increased environmental awareness have led to the utilization of renewable materials in a number of applications (Alawar et al. 2009; Abdelmouleh et al. 2004; Cai et al. 2012; Demirbas 2009; Duwensee et al. 2010). In fact, the industrial exploitation of valuable feedstocks that can be easily obtained from renewable resources is currently the focus of considerable research efforts (Huber et al. 2006; Zhang et al. 2012). For example, renewable materials such as natural bers, vegetable oils, starch, and others are already used in applications such as packaging, automotive, biomedical, and as structural composite materials for housing and infrastructure projects (Andjelkovic et al. 2009; Averous 2004; Cheng et al. 2011; Huber et al. 2012). Concerns regarding the disposal of synthetic polymers have initiated another approach to the development of novel materials from renewable resources (Arno 1989; Bunker and Wool 2002; Ouajai and Shanks 2009), and one of the current priorities in green polymer chemistry is the exploration of biodegradable polymers. These emerging bio-based materials have the potential to play a signicant role in the next generation of materials applications. Intense research efforts around the globe are ongoing to effectively use biopolymers and to successfully implement them in useful products such as in packaging, structural, and biomedical applications (Yang et al. 2010a; Zain et al.
