Green Polymers and Their Uses in Petroleum Industry, Current State and Future Perspectives

Abstract

The concept of green chemistry has been established to find safe methodologies and environmentally benign solutions for the present and the onset problems. In this regard, extensive work has been carried out worldwide to replace the currently used materials with green ones. The terminology green relies on all the non-pollutive or the degradable materials regardless of their source. Therefore, there are biobased green materials and non-biobased green materials. This review sheds light on several green polymers used in different petroleum industries. The polymers are reviewed according to the stage of oil processing in which they are applied. Furthermore, different modification methodologies of natural polymers are revised. Also, the role of green non-biopolymers in different petroleum industries is investigated. It is worth mentioning that we concentrate our efforts on the utilization of different natural polymers in petroleum applications. Thereafter, some natural polymers such as chitosan and cellulose and their derivatives were specifically reviewed.