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Industry has long been wary of mass-producing biodegradable plastics, not only because of deficient technology, but also because of the high costs usually associated with them. But a CSIR-funded institute in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, might just have the solution with its breakthrough discovery last week—a process by which biodegradable polymers can be developed at almost zero cost using byproducts of jatropha-based bio-diesel.
Many institutions have developed biodegradable plastics using crude glycerol, a byproduct of bio-diesel, but the process has been extremely sophisticated and expensive. “We are not the first people to make bio-diesel from crude glycerol. But we wanted to find a smarter way,” said Pushpito K. Ghosh, director of the Central Salt & Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI). CSMCRI owes its biodegradable polymer to a project that started 12 years ago, when it started conducting research on the practicality of cultivating jatropha on wasteland 12 years ago.
