Polylactic acid market to 2023

The bioplastic industry will expand production capacity by 10.1% CAGR to 7,078 kilotons in 2033

Polylactic acid market to 2023

Bioplastics 2023-2033: Technology, Market, Players, and Forecasts

Biobased PLA, PET, PEF, polyesters, polyolefins, polyamides, polyurethanes, PHA and polysaccharides, for packaging, automotive, textiles, agriculture, consumer goods, and other applications in the circular economy.

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Bioplastics manufacturers are scaling production rapidly and the industry is expected to grow by 10.1% CAGR in the next ten years. Manufacturers are driven by brand-owner pull to meet decarbonization commitments, consumer demand for sustainability, and single-use fossil-based plastic ban laws. In this report, IDTechEx explores the drivers of the bioplastic market's growth, analyses key and emerging technologies, examines end-of-life options, discusses applications, and forecasts the opportunities and growth of the market.

Plastic demand grows

Plastic demand continues to grow even as we become increasingly aware of the threat that plastics pose to our environment. Global consumption of plastics will double by 2050. To combat the impact of plastic on environment and climate change, the industry is transitioning towards a circular economy. Yet, even if all the plastic produced every year was 100% recycled, there would still be a need for virgin feedstock to meet growing consumption. Bioplastics - plastics which are synthesised from biobased feedstocks - can replace incumbent fossil-based plastics here. Given their biobased origin, these plastics are a lower carbon footprint and sustainable option to incumbent fossil-based plastics.

Climbing out of the valley of death

The bioplastics industry began decades ago, but during the 2010s the industry fell deep into the valley of death, indicated by a string of bankruptcies and business repositioning away from the space. This slump was driven by recoil from bullish initial investment in the space, and a significant bottleneck when it came to scaling production to commercial level. Furthermore, the high relative cost of bioplastics compared with a substantial drop in the price of Brent crude made bioplastics poor competition against conventional plastics, reinforcing the decline.

Yet, recent changes have turned the tide in the bioplastics industry, revitalizing its growth mode. Foremost, there has been a shift towards sustainability demand from brand-owners themselves. This is driven from both sides: by consumer pull that continues to strengthen, and by legislation changes (plus anticipation for future changes) towards sustainability- such as single use fossil-based plastics bans. The cornerstone COP26 conference, supported by the IPCC report, fuelled brand-owner commitments to decarbonization, too. This surplus demand is pushing manufacturers to expand their capacities faster, with many brand-owners forming partnerships to accelerate the scaling-up process.

Polylactic acid market to 2023

Technology readiness level of bioplastics by types

Source: IDTechEx

Many companies are beginning to overcome the commercial scale bottleneck and as technology develops bioplastics are being produced for lower costs. Additionally, consumers are more willing now to pay the premium for sustainable bioplastics. Overall, these factors are driving bioplastics towards being more affordable and competitive against conventional plastics. This is supported by a spike in Brent crude prices recently, which make bioplastics a more attractive alternative.

Drop-in disruptors

A major factor for bioplastic adoption to disrupt the plastics industry is the drop-in materials. These are biobased feedstocks or building blocks that can be a direct substitute for incumbent feedstocks. By substituting with drop-ins, manufacturers can easily facilitate the transition from fossil to biobased. The same processes can be used, rather than establishing entirely new plants, and end-product properties are unchanged. This also means that the well-established end-of-life options of incumbent plastic products can be used, particularly recycling streams which massively improve the sustainability of a plastic product. Using drop-ins, the biobased material can be traced with chain-of-custody models like mass balance, which create transparency and trust throughout the value chain regarding sustainable material origins and processes. Overall, the plastics market will more readily adopt drop-in bioplastics which have a strong advantage over other bioplastics.

Challenges for bioplastics

Yet, there are still many challenges for several bioplastic types to overcome. To be truly sustainable and become part of the circular economy, bioplastics must be designed for end-of-life processing. For example, PLA, the most widely produced 100% biobased plastic material can be industrially composted, however this provides no value to the compost so there are few off-takers in the industry. Meanwhile, recycling PLA, unlike drop-in biobased PET, requires dedicated infrastructure that is uncommon and very expensive to adopt. Instead, most PLA is mismanaged or goes to landfill.

The largest groups of plastics worldwide, PP and PE, remain without a major bioplastic solution. Bio-naphtha is used to make biobased PP and PPE, but synthesis of bio-naphtha from bio-alcohols and oxygenates is inefficient (because of waste oxygen in the process). Furthermore, this puts chemical manufacturers into competition for feedstock with biofuel and bioenergy. On the other hand, bio-naphtha can be made from plant oils, however these raw materials suffer from price fluctuations resulting from geopolitical instability.

Younger bioplastic types that are still in demonstration or pilot scale show promising properties. However, they have yet to develop a significant range of applications, critical to developing demand for the materials. Companies in these niches need to form partnerships with brand-owners and formulators to expand their application portfolios.

IDTechEx 10-year market forecast segmented by bioplastic types

The report segments and discusses the market by bioplastic types, looking at the drivers and constraints of each segment. These segments are extrapolated in the 10-year forecast, to explore the segments' technology readiness, potential for market disruption, and the landscape for planned capacity expansions.

This report provides the following information

  • Bioplastics in the circular economy
  • Corporate activity, trends, and themes in bioplastics

Technology trends

  • Analysis of technologies for polymerization of synthetic biobased monomers
  • Analysis of technologies for extraction of naturally occurring polymers
  • Technology readiness level of biobased polymers
  • Corporate activity, partnerships, bankruptcies, and industry growth
  • Drivers for bioplastics and integration in the circular economy
  • Key challenges for the industry
  • Emerging technologies in synthetic and naturally occurring bioplastics
  • Bioplastic properties, processability, and applications

Market Forecasts & Analysis

  • 10-year granular market forecasts by 13 biobased polymer types
  • Analysis of materials for processability, and for packaging applications
  • Key market applications

Analyst access from IDTechEx

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Further information

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Table of Contents

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1.1. What are bioplastics?
1.2. Global supply of plastics will continue to grow exponentially
1.3. Bioplastics in the circular economy
1.4. Environmental costs: the rising tide of plastic pollution
1.5. Navigating biobased polymers from monosaccharides
1.6. Navigating biobased polymers from vegetable oils
1.7. Synthetic biobased polymers and monomers: key companies
1.8. Naturally occurring biobased polymers: key companies
1.9. Polylactic acid (PLA)
1.10. PET and PEF
1.11. Other synthetic biobased polymers
1.12. Polyamide properties, applications and opportunities
1.13. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA)
1.14. Polysaccharides
1.15. Effects of Brent crude prices on the bioplastic industry
1.16. Out of the valley of death: bioplastics becoming productive
1.17. Bioplastics: technology readiness level
1.18. Rising feedstock prices
1.19. Bioplastics global total capacity forecast 2023-2033
2. INTRODUCTION
2.1. Scope of the report
2.2. Key terms and definitions
2.3. What are bioplastics?
2.4. Global supply of plastics will continue to grow exponentially
2.5. Decarbonizing economies
2.6. Bioplastics in the circular economy
2.7. Environmental costs: the rising tide of plastic pollution
2.8. The plastic waste management pyramid
2.9. Recycling polymers
2.10. What does "biodegradable" mean?
2.11. The three main families of bioplastics
2.12. Polymer types: thermoplastics, thermosets and elastomers
2.13. The range of available biobased monomers
2.14. Navigating biobased polymers from monosaccharides
2.15. Navigating biobased polymers from vegetable oils
2.16. The four drivers for substitution
2.17. The Green Premium
2.18. Effect of the price of Brent crude on the bioplastics industry
2.19. Out of the valley of death: bioplastics becoming productive
2.20. Bioplastics: technology readiness level
2.21. Rising feedstock prices
2.22. Plastic regulation around the world
2.23. Food, land, and water competition
2.24. Green transition: the chain of custody
2.25. Chain of custody: mass balance (1)
2.26. Chain of custody: mass balance (2)
3. BIOBASED SYNTHETIC POLYMERS: POLYLACTIC ACID (PLA)
3.1. What is polylactic acid?
3.2. Production of PLA
3.3. PLA production process
3.4. Lactic acid: bacterial fermentation or chemical synthesis?
3.5. Optimal lactic acid bacteria strains for fermentation
3.6. Engineering yeast strains for lactic acid fermentation
3.7. Fermentation, recovery and purification
3.8. Polymerization of lactide and microstructures of PLA
3.9. PLA end-of-life options
3.10. Hydrolysis of PLA
3.11. Suppliers of lactide and polylactic acid
3.12. Current and future applications of polylactic acid
3.13. Polylactic acid: a SWOT analysis
3.14. Opportunities in the lifecycle of PLA
3.15. TotalEnergies Corbion
3.16. Natureworks
3.17. BASF: ecovio®
3.18. Conclusions
4. BIOBASED SYNTHETIC POLYMERS: OTHER SYNTHETIC BIOBASED POLYESTERS
4.1. Introduction to polyesters from diacids and diols
4.2. The range of available biobased polyesters
4.3. Biobased polyester suppliers
4.4. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
4.5. Biobased MEG and PET: monomer production
4.6. Biobased MEG and PET: industry & applications
4.7. Biobased MEG and PET: SWOT
4.8. Biobased PDO and PTT: monomer production
4.9. Biobased PDO and PTT: polymer applications
4.10. Biobased BDO: monomer production
4.11. Biobased BDO technology is licenced from Genomatica
4.12. Biobased BDO and PBT: polymer applications
4.13. Biobased terephthalic acid (TPA)
4.14. Biobased succinic acid: monomer production
4.15. Biobased succinic acid and PBS: polymer applications
4.16. Polyethylene furanoate (PEF)
4.17. Biobased furfural compounds: 5-HMF
4.18. Biobased FDCA: monomer production
4.19. Biobased FDCA and PEF: polymer applications
5. BIOBASED SYNTHETIC POLYMERS: POLYAMIDES
5.1. Introduction to biobased polyamides
5.2. Biobased synthesis routes to polyamides
5.3. Range of available biobased monomers and polyamides
5.4. Biobased monomer and polyamide suppliers
5.5. C6: adipic acid, hexamethylenediamine and caprolactam
5.6. C10: sebacic acid and decamethylenediamine
5.7. C11: 11-aminoundecanoic acid
5.8. C12: Dodecanedioic acid
5.9. Polyamide properties, applications and opportunities
6. BIOBASED SYNTHETIC POLYMERS: OTHER SYNTHETIC BIOBASED POLYMERS
6.1. Polyester polyols, polyurethanes and polyisocyanates
6.2. Cargill: vegetable oil derived polyols
6.3. Covestro and Reverdia: Impranil eco Succinic acid based polyester polyols
6.4. BASF: Sovermol 830 Castor oil derived polyether-ester polyol
6.5. Covestro: PDI and Desmodur eco polyisocyanurate
6.6. Biobased naphtha
6.7. Biobased polyolefins
6.8. Biobased polyolefins: challenging but in demand
6.9. Biobased polyolefins Landscape
6.10. Braskem: I'm green polyethylene
6.11. Borealis: Bornewables
6.12. Biobased isosorbide as a comonomer
6.13. Roquette: POLYSORB isosorbide
6.14. Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation: Durabio
7. NATURALLY OCCURRING BIOPLASTICS AND BIOBASED POLYMERS: POLYHYDROXYALKANOATES (PHA)
7.1. Introduction to poly(hydroxyalkanoates)
7.2. Key commercial PHAs and microstructures
7.3. Properties of commercial PHAs
7.4. Suppliers of PHAs
7.5. PHB, PHBV, and P(3HB-co-4HB)
7.6. Short and medium chain length PHAs
7.7. Biosynthetic pathways to PHAs
7.8. Fermentation, recovery and purification
7.9. PHAs: a SWOT analysis
7.10. Applications of PHAs
7.11. Opportunities in PHAs
7.12. Reducing the cost of PHA production
7.13. Risks in PHAs
7.14. PHAs are only made in small quantities
7.15. PHA production facilities
7.16. Newlight Technologies
7.17. Danimer Scientific
7.18. Conclusions
8. NATURALLY OCCURRING BIOPLASTICS AND BIOBASED POLYMERS: POLYSACCHARIDES
8.1. Cellulose
8.2. Nanocellulose
8.3. Nanocellulose up close
8.4. Forms of nanocellulose
8.5. Applications of nanocellulose
8.6. Celluforce
8.7. Weidmann Fiber Technology
8.8. Exilva
8.9. Starch
8.10. Manufacturing thermoplastic starch (TPS)
8.11. Composite and modified thermoplastic starches
8.12. Plantic
8.13. Novamont
8.14. Seaweeds
8.15. Seaweed polymers for packaging
8.16. Loliware
8.17. Notpla: Ooho!
8.18. Evoware
8.19. Constraints for polysaccharide bioplastics
9. MARKETS AND FORECASTS
9.1. Global total plastic production continues to grow 2.6% year on year
9.2. Global production capacities of bioplastics by region (2021)
9.3. Bioplastics: processability
9.4. Bioplastics: application in packaging
9.5. Bioplastics: applicability for flexible packaging
9.6. Bioplastics: applicability for rigid packaging
9.7. Bioplastics and automotive applications
9.8. Bioplastics agriculture and textile applications
9.9. Methodology
9.10. Bioplastics global total capacity vs overall plastics capacity forecast 2023-2033
9.11. Bioplastics global total capacity forecast 2023-2033
9.12. Bioplastics global total capacity forecast 2023-2033
9.13. Polylactic acid (PLA) global capacity forecast 2023-2033
9.14. PET and PEF global capacity forecast 2023-2033
9.15. Other polyesters global capacity forecast2023-2033
9.16. Polyamides and other synthetic polymers global capacity forecast 2023-2033
9.17. PHAs global capacity forecast 2023-2033
9.18. Polysaccharides global capacity forecast 2023-2033

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What is the demand of PLA?

The global polylactic acid market size was valued at USD 566.74 million in 2021 and is expected to advance at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 26.6% from 2022 to 2030. Growing demand for the product is mainly driven by the end-use industries such as agriculture, transport, textile, and packaging.

Why is PLA not widely used?

PGA and its combination with PLA have been widely studied in bio-medical applications, but not been well developed at large scales due to its relatively high production cost.

What companies make PLA plastic?

7 leading polylactic acid manufacturers making food handling easier.
NatureWorks. It is an international chemical manufacturing company that produces bioplastics as an alternative to conventional plastic that is made from petroleum. ... .
Synbra Technology. ... .
Total Corbion. ... .
Danimer Scientific..
PLA was created in the 1930s by the American chemist Wallace Carothers, most recognised for the development of nylon and neoprene in the chemical company DuPont. But it wasn't until the 1980s that PLA was finally produced for use by the American company Cargill.