Biobased Materials

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This course exploits the development of biobased materials involving chemistry of biobased building blocks, the technical processes, principles of circularity and environmental and societal implications. This course builds upon the first-year courses Engineering in a Circular Economy, and has a link to the second-year courses Organic Chemistry, Remake, Reuse, Repair, Recycle, Reversed and Refurbishing Engineering Skills and Polymer Processing Skills. The aim is to create a critical, but also technologically creative and inventive circular attitude towards biobased materials. This is fed by the increasing critical attitude of society towards plastics as they contribute to oil depletion, global warming and pollution of the oceans. You are introduced to renewable bio-based equivalent or alternative monomers and polymers to close carbon cycles timely via various circular concepts and learn how to use biobased resources. You should be able to recognise the challenges and possibilities with respect to polymeric materials in the transition towards a biobased circular economy and society. Typically, the technological solutions are often multidisciplinary in nature, demanding engineering at the interface of chemical engineering, biotechnology and materials engineering. Added to this, societal, economic, and ethical aspects need to be taken into account along the new value chain specific to biobased materials.