Most plastics in the world today are based on petroleum, which not only involves a dirty production process but makes plastics production economically volatile due to fluctuations in the price of oil. For this reason, news that a Colorado State University professor has figured out a way to make plastic that uses bio materials rather than oil, is truly welcome. According to the University News & Information site, Chemistry Professor Eugene Chen and colleagues have devised a variety of processes, all of them based on bio-materials, for creating several kinds of plastics that are virtually indistinguishable from such plastics created used oil based processes.
This is truly a breakthrough says R&D Magazine, because scientists from many fields have been looking for several years for a way to make plastics from almost anything other than oil, due to the issues involved in its use. The problem hasn’t been in making plastic per se, but in making plastic that will hold up to the demands that are placed on it by most modern products. One example they cite is fiber optic cables, which are made by wrapping super-high quality glass in a special form of plastic. That plastic casing has to protect the inner glass from twisting and turning forces, high pressure, both hot and cold temperatures and changing humidity conditions. The plastic used to make such cables took several years to develop and is now one of a kind.
In the University report, the authors note that developing a variety of plastics is just one step in developing plastics for use in truly unique environments. Even plastics used in the home have to pass certain criteria before they can be used. Anything that touches food for example has to be tested extensively to make sure the plastic that comes off doesn’t harm people. Also, it would be nice if it could survive a run though a dishwasher.
The bottom line is, every plastic that is used in a commercial product must meet certain specifications, and because of the variety of plastics that Dr. Chen and his colleagues have managed to create from biological materials, other scientists are optimistic that they can be used to replace many of the oil based plastics currently in use. If some of them are the ones that are the most widely used, plastic grocery bags for example, then it could make a huge difference not just in the price of such products but on the overall oil supply and costs of it as well.