A great deal of effort is being devoted to developing biological (sustainable) routes to monomers (propane diol, butane diol) and polymers identical to (PE, PET) or competitive with (PLA, PHA) petroleum-derived materials. While some success has been achieved, these materials struggle to be cost-competitive. Isosorbide is a sugar-derived diol that may offer competitive advantage to broad range of products including thermoplastics, thermosets, polymer additives and polymer modifiers. Recently, it has been reported that a cost-effective route to 2,5 Furan dicarboxylic acid has been achieved, renewing interest in a potentially enabling new monomer for polyesters and polyamides. In some cases the structural complexity of bio-derived chemistries may enable performance difficult to achieve with conventional chemistry; two examples of this are isosorbide modified PET with improved thermal stability and soy protein modified synthetic fibers with improved hand. Assigning a value to sustainability has been difficult but it appears sustainability and renewability are an advantage if cost-competitiveness is achiev

Can bioderived polymers compete?

246th National Meeting (2013)

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