A perspective of lignin processing and utilization technologies for composites and plastics with emphasis on technical and market trends

Abstract

This effort is focused on work completed publicly and privately within academic research and industrial sectors on the utilization of lignin to produce thermosets, thermoplastics, foams, hydrogels, and rubbers. The size of the plastics market and the current and projected influence of lignin on it were evaluated. Further, an analysis of patent activity was employed to show the direction of and interest for lignin in these markets. The market trends documented in the literature, when coupled with detailed patent research, offer a new approach to evaluate potential markets and future directions. The analysis of the commercial market sizes of bioplastics and segmentation showed low penetration of actual lignin-based bioplastics. This exposed the contradiction between the abundance of technologies for lignin-based materials and their little practical use. In addition, this finding highlighted a severe gap between lignin research and development and the actual market.