Building with Bioplastics - Part 1

June 25, 2012 – Vol.17 No.15

BUILDING WITH BIOPLASTICS:
ATMOSPHERIC CARBON STORAGE IN CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS - PART 1.

Introduction to a concept industry.

by Bruce Mulliken, Green Energy News

They won't give up without a fight. (And fighting they are!) The world runs on fossil fuels. Fossil fuel interests - of which there are many - will do anything within their wealth to keep their interests alive and prosperous. They'll attempt to purchase democracies and build plutocracies. They'll control the message and the messengers. They'll ignore the wisdom of scientists. They'll put a halt to technologies that have the potential to disrupt and displace theirs.

Virtually all major efforts to control greenhouse gas emissions have been to stop, slow, or capture carbon emissions from fossil fuels. Renewable energies, energy efficiency, clean technologies, carbon capture and sequestration are all aimed directly at lowering carbon emissions. All are either disruptive to fossil interests, or too costly in their eyes for them to bear. They'll find excuse after excuse and delay after delay to cut or clean their emissions.

Fossil fuel interests will see that nothing substantial is done about global warming.

So far they are succeeding.

Are fossil fuel interests evil? No, just operating in a global capitalist system that allows them to behave as they do.

To control carbon emissions nearly everyone has to be on board. The majority has to want to do this. To date they are not.

If getting the world's temperature under control is the ultimate goal, then alternative methods need to be found that are above, beyond and outside the fossil fuel industry to do that job.

A new industry that results in the cleaning the atmosphere has to created. People have to make money doing it. People have to be employed. Some people will get rich at it. Government needs to be involved, but only minimally so.

Is this giving in fossil fuel interests? Is it letting them win? In a way, yes. However greenhouse gas emissions have to be cut no matter what it takes.

This is the first in a series of articles of one way to remove excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and put it in storage. It is not a cure-all solution. It's not a substitute for clean technologies. It is however beyond the interests of the fossil industry (although they could help out by investing.) It is meant to be an industry that will make money and earn profits. Much of the technology already exists. This new industry is not likely to be highly disruptive to existing industries. (Feasibly it might not be disruptive at all.)

This a concept industry, just an idea. The industry is based on a combination of natural and industrial processes. Call it the bioplastic construction materials industry, that is bioplastics used to construct projects with long life spans, projects that will be in service decades or more.

The abstract for the concept begins with green plants:

Plants absorb carbon dioxide from the air and, along with water and energy from sunlight (or other energy sources), use it as a component of stored energy as well as the basis for materials, such as cellulose, in which to build themselves, grow. While alive, green plants are, in essence, sequestering carbon dioxide within their own structures. In this industry the plants are harvested then processed into bioplastic and bioplastic composites made from the cellulose, oils or starch of the plant. The carbon remains sequestered, stored in the bioplastics. In turn those bioplastics or bioplastic composites are made into building and construction materials, or components to be used in construction projects that remain serviceable for decades keeping the carbon sequestered. At the end of life for the construction project the bioplastic materials would be recycled into new bioplastic materials, again put in service for decades or be secured or sequestered in a landfill. Within those bioplastic materials carbon taken from the atmosphere remains locked up, sequestered within the materials permanently, unless the bioplastic materials decay for some reason or are used as fuel.

This series of articles is not intended to be scientific in any way. It will not look at all the possible varieties of bioplastics and bioplastic composites. Nor will it attempt to calculate the amount of carbon that could be stored or sequestered. It will however consider:

--- The scope of possibilities

--- Why materials not fuels

--- The role of green energy

--- Biodegradable vs. recycling

--- Plastics from smokestack emissions

--- Why composites?

--- Why building and construction projects?

--- Marketing

--- Regulatory needs

--- Economic viewpoint

--- Product applications

--- Public acceptance

--- and more

There are a number of companies involved in the development, sale and marketing of bioplastic materials. They are fully aware of the carbon dioxide sequestering possibilities of their products. But they or their products are not yet recognized for this possibility. Hopefully this series of articles will help.

BUILDING WITH BIOPLASTICS:
ATMOSPHERIC CARBON STORAGE IN CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS - PART 1. Introduction to a concept industry.

BUILDING WITH BIOPLASTICS:
ATMOSPHERIC CARBON STORAGE IN CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS - PART 2.
Residential bioplastic building materials when managed and recycled could sequester carbon dioxide for centuries.

BUILDING WITH BIOPLASTICS:
ATMOSPHERIC CARBON STORAGE IN CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS - PART 3.
Building big things for significant carbon sequestration.

BUILDING WITH BIOPLASTICS:
ATMOSPHERIC CARBON STORAGE IN CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS - PART 4.
Renewable energy plays a significant role.

BUILDING WITH BIOPLASTICS:
ATMOSPHERIC CARBON STORAGE IN CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS - PART 5.
Which plants for feedstock?

BUILDING WITH BIOPLASTICS:
ATMOSPHERIC CARBON STORAGE IN CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS - PART 6.
Man-made systems to capture carbon dioxide for plastics and other chemicals.

BUILDING WITH BIOPLASTICS:
ATMOSPHERIC CARBON STORAGE IN CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS - PART 7.
The need for a regulated industry.

BUILDING WITH BIOPLASTICS:
ATMOSPHERIC CARBON STORAGE IN CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS - PART 8.
New technologies to convert plant material into chemicals for bioplastics and series wrap-up.