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Earth Systems and Environment
https://doi.org/10.1007/s41748-021-00208-7
REVIEW ARTICLE
Bioplastic fromRenewable Biomass: AFacile Solution foraGreener
Environment
GerardoCoppola1· MariaTeresaGaudio1· CatiaGiovannaLopresto1· VincenzaCalabro1· StefanoCurcio1·
SudipChakraborty1
Received: 2 February 2021 / Accepted: 6 March 2021
© The Author(s) 2021
Abstract
Environmental pollutions are increasing day by day due to more plastic application. The plastic material is going in our food
chain as well as the environment employing microplastic and other plastic-based contaminants. From this point, bio-based
plastic research is taking attention for a sustainable and greener environment with a lower footprint on the environment.
This evaluation should be made considering the whole life cycle assessment of the proposed technologies to make a whole
range of biomaterials. Bio-based and biodegradable bioplastics can have similar features as conventional plastics while
providing extra returns because of their low carbon footprint as long as additional features in waste management, like com-
posting. Interest in competitive biodegradable materials is growing to limit environmental pollution and waste management
problems. Bioplastics are defined as plastics deriving from biological sources and formed from renewable feedstocks or by
a variation of microbes, owing to the ability to reduce the environmental effect. The research and development in this field
of bio-renewable resources can seriously lead to the adoption of a low-carbon economy in medical, packaging, structural
and automotive engineering, just to mention a few. This review aims to give a clear insight into the research, application
opportunities, sourcing and sustainability, and environmental footprint of bioplastics production and various applications.
Bioplastics are manufactured from polysaccharides, mainly starch-based, proteins, and other alternative carbon sources,
such as algae or even wastewater treatment byproducts. The most known bioplastic today is thermoplastic starch, mainly as
a result of enzymatic bioreactions. In this work, the main applications of bioplastics are accounted. One of them being food
applications, where bioplastics seem to meet the food industry concerns about many the packaging-related issues and appear
to play an important part for the whole food industry sustainability, helping to maintain high-quality standards throughout
the whole production and transport steps, translating into cleaner and smarter delivery chains and waste management. High
perspectives resides in agricultural and medical applications, while the number of fields of applications grows constantly, for
example, structural engineering and electrical applications. As an example, bio-composites, even from vegetable oil sources,
have been developed as fibers with biodegradable features and are constantly under research.
Keywords Bioplastic· Biomaterials· Environmental Pollutiion· Biopolymer· Biodegradable polymers
1 Introduction
Today, bioplastic materials represent a valid alternative to
the conventional plastics and their applications. Actually,
the bioplastics market share is around 1% of the 370 million
tons of total global plastic produced. But their annual growth
rates hover around 30% until 2025. European Bioplastics
(EUBP)—the association representing the bio-plastics
industry’s defined “bio-plastic” as the biodegradable plastic
materials and plastics produced from renewable resources.
IUPAC defined bioplastic as a derivative of “biomass or
monomers with plant origin, at some point of processing
can be designed” (Vert etal. 2012; Plastics Europe 2021).
Plastic materials comprise polymers with relatively high
molecular weight. They are typically produced by chemical
synthesis processes. The term bioplastics is used to distin-
guish polymers that originate from renewable sources as
biomass. The synthetic polymers are made from monomers
by polycondensation, or polyaddition or polymerization, and
* Sudip Chakraborty
sudip.chakraborty@unical.it
1 University ofCalabria, Department ofDIMES, via Pietro
Bucci, Cubo 42A°, 87036Rende, Cosenza, Italy
G.Coppola et al.
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most of them have a simpler structure than natural ones.
They can be classified into four different groups: elasto-
mers, thermosets, thermoplastics and synthetic fibers. The
most communal synthetic polymers are polypropylene (PP);
polyethylene (PE), acrylonitrile–butadiene–styrene (ABS),
polycarbonate (PC), polyamides (PAs), polystyrene (PS),
polyethylene terephthalate; polyvinyl chloride (PVC), pol-
ytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon), poly(methyl methacrylate)
(PMMA), acrylic polyurethane (PU, PUR). Some of their
applications are shown in Fig.1, where the size of bubbles
shows the relative importance. These plastics are tradition-
ally petrochemically derived, but the demand for their pro-
duction from renewable feedstocks is growing.
Theoretically, all usual plastics are generally degradable,
but they have a slow breakdown, hence considered non-(bio)
degradable.
Biodegradation of bioplastics depends on their physical
and chemical structures in terms of polymer chains, func-
tional groups and crystallinity, but also on the natural envi-
ronment in which they are placed (i.e., moisture, oxygen,
temperature and pH). Biodegradation is an enzymatic reac-
tion catalysed in different ecosystems by microorganisms,
such as actinobacteria (Amycolatopsis, Streptomyces), bac-
teria (Paenibacillus, Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Bulkholderia)
and fungi (Aspergillus, Fusarium, Penicillium) (Emadian
etal. 2017). There are different concepts of biodegradation.
One very common degradation process is called hydrolysis.
The hydrolysis mechanisms are exaggerated by diffusion of
water through polymer matrix. Time duration for the deg-
radation may vary for different material, such as polylactic
acid, has very slow degradation which is about 11months
(Thakur etal. 2018). Moreover, the biodegradation rate be
contingent on the end-of-life decisions and the physico-
chemical conditions, such as moisture, oxygen, temperature,
presence of a specific microorganism, presence of light. The
main end-of-life choices for biodegradable plastics include
recycling and reprocessing, incineration and other recovery
options, biological waste treatments, such as composting,
anaerobic digestion and landfill (Mugdal etal 2012; Song
etal. 2009). The composting process represents the final
disposition most favourable from an environmental point of
view. The presence of ester, amide, or hydrolyzable carbon-
ate increases biodegradation’s susceptibility.
Bioplastics also do produce less greenhouse gases than
that of usual plastics over their period. Therefore, bioplastics
contribute to a more sustainable society.
Therefore, there are bioplastic alternatives to conven-
tional plastic materials. It already plays a vital part in dif-
ferent fields of application. Bioplastics that are bio-based,
have the same properties as general plastics and offer added
advantages because they have a lesser carbon footprint on
environment. Nevertheless, their low mechanical strength
limits their application. Glass and carbon fibers are synthetic
fibers commonly used to reinforce bioplastics, but they are
not biodegradable. For this reason, they can be replaced
by more environmentally friendly, abundant, and low-cost
materials, such as lignocellulosic fibers and lignin (Yang
etal. 2019). Other physical strengthening methods are the
mold temperature increase, dehydrothermal treatment, and
ultrasounds application. When applied to soy protein-based
bioplastics, the thermal treatment enhanced the mechani-
cal properties, the dehydrothermal treatment increased the
superabsorbent capacity and ultrasounds lead to a structure
with smaller pores. As a consequence, the treated bioplas-
tics could be used in different applications (Jiménez-Rosado
etal. 2020).
A new green one-step water-based process was proposed
to convert vegetable wastes into biodegradable bioplastic
films having similar mechanical properties with other bio-
plastics (Perotto 2018).
Recent trends indicate the biocompatible and biodegrad-
able polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) as alternatives to con-
ventional plastics which has wide variety of thermal and
mechanical characteristics (Khatami etal. 2021). PHAs are
linear polyesters, produced by microbiological, enzymatic,
or chemical processes, but their industrial production is
still not cost-competitive (Medeiros Garcia Alcântara etal.
2020). Renewable and inexpensive carbon sources—such
as macroalgae, peanut oil, crude glycerol, and whey—have
been studied to reduce production costs (El-malek etal.
2020). Innovative research proposed the production of PHAs
by a three-step process consisting of CO2 reduction to ace-
tate and butyrate by microbial electrosynthesis, extraction/
concentration of acetate and butyrate, and PHAs production
from volatile fatty acids. This process meets the demand to
decrease CO2 emissions and convert a greenhouse gas to
bioplastics (Pepè Sciarria etal. 2018).
Currently, researchers pay great attention to the produc-
tion of biomass-derived next-generation advanced polymer,
such as poly(ethylene 2,5-furandicarboxlate) (PEF) (Hwang
Fig. 1 Typical applications of polymers (Plastics Europe 2021)
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etal. 2020; Algieri etal. 2013, 2012; Iben Nasser etal.
2016). Moreover, another very new trend investigates green
microalgae cells as raw materials for the production of cell
plastics (Nakanishi etal. 2020).
2 Bioplastic Materials
Plastics are polymeric chains composed of repetitive units or
monomers linked together. These macromolecules are con-
ventionally synthesized by polymerization, polycondensa-
tion or polyaddition reactions from fossil sources. Interest
in competitive biodegradable materials is growing to limit
environmental pollution and waste management problems.
Bioplastics are a new plastic generation, defined as plastics
originating from a biological system and produced from
renewable feedstocks or by a range of microorganisms. Since
they significantly reduce the environmental impact in terms
of greenhouse effect and energy consumption, they are a
challenge for a greener future.
Having different properties, bioplastic materials are clas-
sified in three main groups, as shown in Fig.2:
• Bio-based or partially bio-based plastics;
• Bio-based and biodegradable Plastics;
• Fossil resources and biodegradable Plastics,
2.1 Non‑biodegradable
Most of the current bioplastic market is non-biodegradable
which makes problem for waste management (Algieri etal.
2012, 2017). Bio-based /partially bio-based plastics include
bio-based drop-in PE and PP, polyethylene terephthalate
(PET), and technical performance bio-based polymers, such
as polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT) or Thermoplastic
polyester elastomers (TPC-ET), as well as bio-based PAs.
These non-biodegradable bioplastics are from renewable
natural resources, that is from biomass without having the
bio-degradation characteristics(Rahman and Bhoi 2021).
This last is formed in a major part in Brazil, where they pro-
duce bioethanol from sugarcane by a fermentation route. The
biopolyethylene is also produced from bioethanol, as other
common bioplastics: polyethylene terephthalate (bio-PET),
bio-PP or polypropylene (bio-PVC, polyvinyl chloride (bio-
PVC),bio-PET, (Rujnić-Sokele and Pilipović 2017).
Bio-PE, bio-PET, and bio-PAs currently represent 40%
around 0.8 million tonnes of global bioplastic production
capacities (The bioplastics global market to grow by 36%
within the next five years 2021). In these last years, the focus
has shifted on polyethylene furoate (PEF), a novel polymer
that is anticipated to enter the commercial market by 2023.
This new polymer is comparable to PET, but it is completely
bio-based and has superior barrier properties, which makes
it an optimal material for beverage bottles.
Fig. 2 Types of bioplastics (Philp etal. 2013)
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2.2 Biodegradable
Plastics that are both biodegradable and bio-based, come
from renewable natural resources, show the biodegradation
property at some stage. This group includes the thermo-
plastically modified starch as well as other bio-degradable
polymers like polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), polylactide
(PLA), and polybutylene succinate (PBS).
Besides petrochemicals, PLA can be found from planned
Escherichia coli (Jung and Lee 2011) or with woven bamboo
fabric (Porras and Maranon2012).
Instead, PHAs in Fig.3 shown a general structure are a
varied cluster of biopolymers, but typically denote to poly(3-
hydroxybutyrate) and poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxy
valerate) (PHBV). They are mostly produced from sugar or
lipids by bacteria because PHAs represent an intracellular
product of bacteria. Around 250 types of bacteria help to
yield PHA. So, these bioplastics are collected with the dem-
olition of bacteria and then disconnected from the microbial
cell matter. Moreover, PHAs have good barrier characteristic
and attractive in different biomedical applications. They also
have the standard specification from marine degradability,
which is ASTM D7081.
PHAs have different attributes: fully bio-degradable
either in water or even in soil (Meereboer etal. 2020); good
resistance as well as printability to oil and grease; until a
temperature of 120°C (Philp etal. 2013).
Moreover, PHAs came from agro- and food wastes, such
as wheat bran, rice husk, potato peel, mango peel, straw and
bagasse and (Gowda and Shivakumar 2014). They degrade
in different rate in different media. Thus, as seen as in the
case of PHAs, in general, the property of biodegradability
can be directly related to the structure of the polymer and can
thus be benefited with specific applications, particularly in
case of packaging. PCL is a bio-degradable polyester which
has very low melting point (~ 60°C). It has general applica-
tion in biomedical, which includes the surgical structure.
To state that a biodegradable material is necessary to have
a standard specification and some material about the time-
frame, the amount of biodegradation, as well as environmen-
tal conditions. Thus, EUBP focuses on more explicit claim
of composability and the corresponding standard references
as shown in Fig.4.
If a product is classified as compostable, it has another
advantage besides biodegradability, it differs from the
oxo-biodegradable products. These lasts do not fulfill the
standard EN 13,432 about compostability, because the oxo-
fragmentation is not biodegradation. “Oxo-degradable” or
“oxo-biodegradable” is made with conventional plastics
including some additives to replicate biodegradation, with
a small fragmentation remain in the environment.
2.3 Bio‑Based Certification Standards
The term “bio-based” refers to material derived from bio-
mass. The most common biomass for bioplastic uses is, for
example, corn, sugarcane, and cellulose.
Bio-based plastics have the exceptional advantage over
general plastics materials which can reduce the dependency
on fossil resources, resulting lesser amount of emission of
greenhouse gas. Consequently help the EU achieving the
goals of CO2 emission in 2020 (Bioplastics-Facts and Fig-
ures 2021).
Usually, companies indicate their bio-based products
with the wording “bio-based carbon content” or with “bio-
based mass content”, but some other standard certifica-
tions exist to individuate them. A methodology to measure
the bio-based carbon content in materials exists which is
called the 14C-method. Thanks to this method, the Euro-
pean standard, and the corresponding USA standards exist.
They are CEN7TS 16,137 and ASTM 6866, respectively,
for EU standard and US standard. Moreover, a method to
individuate a bio-based mass content was introduced by
the French Association Chimie du Vegetal (ACDV) with
Fig. 3 The general structure of
polyhydroxyalkanoates (Ojumu
etal. 2004)
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a corresponding certification scheme. It consists to take
chemical elements—such as oxygen, nitrogen, and hydro-
gen—into account, besides the bio-based carbon.
3 Bioplastics Applications
3.1 Food Packaging
One of the main recent focuses of the food industry concerns
packaging-related issues, which defines a whole industry
by itself. This kind of industry is constantly following the
needs and criteria of the food production world, and its focus
on the development of new biopolymer-based packaging is
crucial for the whole food industry sustainability as well as
its quality standards, leading to more clean and sustainable
delivery chains from the production facilities and their inter-
nal storage systems, to transport facilities, to market places
to consumer houses.
The need for high-standard storage features and the
urge for packaging with high economic, low ecological
impact, ease of customization, and low encumbrance can be
answered by compostable or degradable bioplastics (Jabeen
etal. 2015).
Still, the effective applications of packaging in the food
industry are few in respect to other fields and need to be
enlarged; but nowadays, the biggest food distribution organi-
zations are sensitive to the problem and seem willing to con-
vert to bioplastics as much as possible.
One important aspect to consider when developing this
kind of material is that diverse food products need different
packaging features, resulting in the need for the development
of many technologies, such as multi-layer films, modified
atmosphere packaging, and smart and active packaging.
One of the main requested features for food packaging is
the shielding from water and oxygen. While it is not difficult
to develop bio-based multicomponent synthetic coatings to
act as a barrier, this arises as a downside, the difficulty for a
recycling option, as long as the recycling itself is practicable
for single-component materials.
To have a quick view as shown in the Table1 below (Pilla
2011), the main features required in food packaging are
moisture and oxygen permeability and mechanical proper-
ties. The Table1 below compares the main materials, both
bio-based and synthetic, used in the field (see Table2).
The main issues of bio-based polymers in the food indus-
try field are their relative high price than conventional plastic
and the less than ideal water barrier features, but to mention
the most widely applied materials in this field, starch-based
Fig. 4 Different biodegradable polymers and corresponding their raw materials used (Vilpoux and Averous 2014)
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films are mostly used for fruit and vegetable packaging and
transportation. Here, this materials’ main positive feature is
the high breathability, a key element for preserving the shelf
life of the fresh products (Bastioli 2001).
Wolf etal. (2005), in 2005, mentioned a price range for
modified starch polymers from €1.50 to €4.50 per kg, the
cheaper mostly being injection molding foams, so that an
average price would sit around €2.50–3.00 per kg.
As different types of food require diverse features, a dis-
tinction by food typology is hereby adopted to give a com-
prehensive view.
Fruits and vegetables have a high respiration rate, which
can lead to a fast decaying of optimal conditions, besides,
they are highly susceptible to water, carbon dioxide, and
ethylene concentration. So as the main features, a package
should provide a good carbon oxide/oxygen ratio in the
Table 1 Comparison between main polymers used in the food industry
Polymers Moisture permeability Oxygen permeability Mechanical properties
Bio-based
Cellulose (CA) acetate Moderate High Moderate
Starch/polyvinyl alcohol High Low Satisfactory
Proteins High-medium Low Satisfactory
Cellulose/cellophane High-medium Very High Satisfactory
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA)
Polyhydroxybutyrate /valerate (PHBA)
Low Low Satisfactory
Polylactate Moderate High-moderate Satisfactory
Synthetic
Low density polyethylene Low Very High Moderate-good
Polystyrene High Very High Poor-moderate
Table 2 Main bioplastics applications in the food industry
Application Biopolymer Company or users References
PLA
Coffe and other bevarages Cardboard and cups with PLA
coating
KLM Jager (2010)
Beverages Cups made with PLA Mosburger (JP) Sudesh and Iwata (2008)
Fresh salads bowls made with PLA MCDonald’s Haugaard etal. (2001)
Carbonted water, juices and dairy
drinks
bottles Cups made with PLA Biota, noble Auras etal. (2004)
Fresh cut fruits, vegetables, bakery
goods
trays and packs made with PLA Asda (retailer) Jager (2010), Koide and Shi (2007)
Organic pretzels, potato chips bags made with PLA Snyder’s of Hanover, PepsiCo’s
Frito-lay
Weston (2012)
Bread Paper bags with PLA window Delhaize (retailer) Delhaize (2007)
Organic poultry bowls made with PLA, absorb
pads
Delhaize (retailer)
Starch based
Milk chocolate Corn starch trays Cadbury food group, Marks and
Spencer
Highlights in Bioplastics, Website
European bioplastics (2021)
Organic tomatoes Packaging based on Corn Iper supermarkets (Italy), Coop
in Italy
Cellulose-based
Kiwi Bio-based trays wrapped whit
cellulose film
Wal-Mart Blakistone and Sand 2008)
Potato chips Metalized cellulose film Boulder Canyon Highlights in Bioplastics, Website
European bioplastics (2021)
Organic pasta Cellulose based packaging Birkel
Sweets Metalized cellulose film Quality street, Thorn ton
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atmosphere around the product, a good barrier against light,
good mechanical properties, and a barrier to odors.
Raw meat is highly susceptible to spoilage bacteria and
pathogens growth. High oxygen concentration in the packag-
ing is requested to preserve the fresh meat’s color, so high
oxygen permeability is required. So vacuum packaging
is often considered a good choice, while adding oxygen-
adsorbing layers, resulting in active packaging, can better
preserve cured meat (Andersen and Rasmussen 1992).
Dairy products need low oxygen permeability materials
to avoid oxidation and microbial growth. In addition to that,
a good barrier to light can preserve fats’ oxidation. Other
main features are the water evaporation factor and the avoid-
ing of odor absorption from the exteriors. These features can
reside in some forms of polysaccharides as pectins, which
are mainly produced by extraction from fruit and vegetable
sources and could act as a safety barrier for food products
(Baldino etal. 2018). For example, the study of Cerqueira
etal. (The bioplastics global market to grow by 36% within
the next five years 2021) on polysaccharide edible coat-
ings to preserve cheese showed good results in terms of the
lower ratio of superficial mold growth compared to uncoated
cheese.
The following Table2 (Kumar and Thakur 2017) is a
collection of the main current applications of bioplastics in
the food industry.
3.2 Agricultural Applications
Agricultural applications of PHAs-based bioplastics are lim-
ited to nets, grow bags, and mulch films. Bioplastics-based
nets are alternatives to high-density polyethylene, tradition-
ally used to increase the crop’s quality and yield and protect
it from birds, insects, and winds. Grow bags, known also
as planter bags or seedling bags, are commonly made of
low-density polyethylene. Instead, PHAs-based grow bags
would be biodegradable, root-friendly, and non-toxic to the
surrounding water bodies. Finally, bioplastics in mulch films
are essential to uphold exceptional soil structure, moisture
retention, control weeds, and prevent contamination, in sub-
stitution of fossil-based plastics (El-malek etal. 2020).
3.3 Medical Applications
Advancements in biomedical applications of biodegradable
plastics lead to the development of drug delivery systems
and therapeutic devices for tissue engineering, such as
implants and scaffolds (Narancic etal. 2020).
Polymers play a crucial role in many medical and bio-
medical application (Parisi 2015, 2018). These fields can
take advantage of cellulose as main green bioplastic. Thanks
to its nontoxicity, non-mutagenicity, and biocompatibility,
cellulose has been deeply studied for implants, tissue, and
neural engineering, and pharmaceutical fields, as shown in
Fig.5 (Picheth 2017).
Cellulose is organized in a fibrillar structure, with fibrils
being the elementary structural unit with a cell diameter of
10nm organized to macroscopically form fibers.
Bacterial cellulose is used in the development of cellu-
losic membranes to be applied for tissue repair scopes. These
membranes exhibit pores in a range of 60–300µm. Also,
modified cellulose matrix and bacterial nano-networks have
been studied (Verma etal. 2008; Li etal. 2009; Liu etal.
2013).
Nanocelluloses and their composites are the main sources
for any green plastic studies about the fabrication of medical
implants, either in dental, orthopedic, and biomedical fields.
More recent studies are developing 3D printing and mag-
netically responsive nanocellulose-based materials (Gumrah
Dumanli 2016).
Another application worth mentioning is wound dress-
ing nano-cellulosic membranes, with features as wound
pain reduction, extruding retention reepithelialization
acceleration and of infection reduction. Patented products
of this kind are already available on the market, such as
Bioprocess®, XCell®, and Biofill® (Magnocavallo etal.
1993; Fontana 1990).
Also, the biocompatibility of PHAs makes them ideal
for medical applications, such as cancer detection, wound
healing dressings, post-surgical ulcer treatment, bone tissue
engineering, heart valves, artificial blood vessels, artificial
nerve conduits and drug delivery matrices (El-malek etal.
2020).
3.4 Novel Industrial Applications
PHAs-based wood-plastic composites are novel industrial
applications of bioplastics. They are very interesting for
Fig. 5 Biomedical applications of bacterial cellulose (Picheth 2017)
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their low cost, biodegradability, mechanical and physical
properties that can be enhanced by suitable pre-treatments.
PHAs-based lignin composites are recently applied as films
in 3D printing, thank their shear-thinning profile that helped
in the layer adhesion and reduced the warpage (El-malek
etal. 2020).
3.5 Other Applications
Bioplastics applications are constantly researched in many
other fields, such as structural and electrical engineering.
Although relying on biopolymers can result in less than ideal
features, in respect to conventional plastics, bio-composite
materials are crucial for research developments and for
widening the application fields (Luca etal. 2017). Polymer
composites are produced combining natural textile (basalt,
carbon),natural fibers (jute, kenaf, hemp and sisal),-fillers
(clays, zeolite, graphene) commonly used in many traditional
application (Candamano etal. 2021, 2020), with polymers
(Mohammed etal. 2015; Candamano etal. 2017), which can
be chosen to be biodegradable (Rouf and Kokini 2016; Díez-
Pascual 2019). Re-inforced biocomposites include recycled
wood fibers or by-products from food crops harvesting. Even
regenerated cellulose fibers from renewable sources like veg-
etal by-products or bacterial (Reddy etal. 2015) are included
in this field, as sourcing nanofibrils of cellulose and chetin
(Roy etal. 2014).
As an example, starches, which are considered one of the
main resources in this field, can be used in a multitude of
applications, which are collected in the Fig.6 below.
Civil engineering applications include the utilization of
foam composite made from vegetable oil sources. Their
main features are generally low weight, acceptable physical
properties, and good thermal insulation features. They are
mostly used in composite-layers panels, in addition to metal
or polymeric panels for construction. Some developments
were brought to re-inforce rigid foam composites using fill-
ers, short fibers, and long fibers. Bio foams obtained from
vegetable oils are mainly produced from soybean, palm, and
rapeseed oils (Lu and Larock 2009), and they derive from a
chemical modification of the oils: -OH groups are added to
an unsaturated triglyceride through hydroxylation of double-
bonded carbons or triglyceride alcoholysis or by the esterifi-
cation of the fatty acids and glycerol molecules contained in
the oils, thus producing a monoglyceride utilizing a catalytic
reaction (Pilla 2011). The mechanical and thermo-acoustical
properties of bio foams are dependent on the cell structure
and size. As an example, closed-cell foams are best suited
for high compressive strength and impact robustness, while
open-cell structures are a good choice for acoustic insula-
tion means.
Rigid foam composites can be re-inforced with a wide
range of fillers and fibers. Inorganic fillers, such as layered
silicates, have considered the realization of synthetic poly-
mer structures, while lignocellulosic fillers and fibers of veg-
etal sources, like soy or wood flours, fillers from paper and
hemp fibers. Those kinds of re-inforcing materials can help
the sustainability of the vegetable oil-derived rigid foams
production and utilization.
4 Environmental Aspects ofBioplastics
4.1 Sustainability andEnvironmental Footprint
The sustainability of the whole family of bioplastics can be
properly seen if all the stages of the materials, like sourcing,
production, utilization, and disposal, are considered. In a
more precise manner, the economic and environmental fea-
tures of each of these stages are weighted. For example, the
manufacture of biocomposites for construction applications
gives direct benefits to the whole construction engineering
industry’s ecological impact.
Bio-based sustainable packaging aims to use renewable
material sources and food and agricultural processing by-
products, which are sources that are not in competition with
the food production chains (Reichert 2020). To classify the
sources of materials used, we can utilize a biofuel classi-
fication, segregating first-, second-, and third-generation
feedstocks. First-generation feedstock involves edible bio-
mass like sugarcane, whey, and maize. The second genera-
tion comprises non-edible biomasses from lignocellulosic
sources, ranging from agriculture, forest, and animal pro-
cessing by-products, to municipal wastes. The most uncon-
ventional sources, listed as third-generation feedstock com-
prise biomass from algae (Naik etal. 2010).
The main biopolymer that seems to have good features
and high versatility to compete with conventional plastics is
polylactic acid (PLA) (Andreas Detzel 2006), made entirely
from renewable sources. It exhibits mechanical properties
similar to PET and PP. As a drawback, Andreas Detzel and
Kauertz (2015) state how bioplastic bags are usually made
with thicker films than conventional plastic bags, resulting
in higher mass utilization. In addition to that, considering
an average range, bioplastic films are made by 40% to 70%
of fossil source components. The two features can lead to
the conclusion that bioplastic bags can easily be the cause
of a consistent environmental load in respect to conventional
plastic bags. To have a better idea on how much the weight
difference can be a problem for sustainability, we can con-
sider that the weight per unit area of bioplastic-based bags
exceeds by 30% circa the weight of PE films, this due to a
higher density of the source materials (Andreas Detzel and
Kauertz 2015).
Biodegradable plastics sources need high areas of farm-
land and vast volumes of water for their production, with
Bioplastic fromRenewable Biomass: AFacile Solution foraGreener Environment
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the consistent downside of using these resources otherwise
allocated to food production. In addition to that, bioplastic
production contributes to pollution because of the pesticides
used for the crops and the chemicals used in the transforma-
tion processes, but here, the use of eco-friendly alternative
methods can overcome the issue (Colwill etal. 2012).
As the last main drawback, bioplastic not composted after
use may be trashed in landfills and consequently produce
methane because of oxygen deprivation, resulting in a cause
for greenhouse production. Even recycling brings up some
issues: the recycling process. of these materials cannot be
processed with conventional plastics and therefore need
separate process streams.
Adhesive Construction Industry
- Hot-me lt glue
s-
Concrete block binder
- Stamps, bookbinding, envelopes- Asbestos, clay/limestone binder
- Labels (regular and waterproof)- Fire-resistant wallboard
- Wood adhe sive, lamina tions - Plywood/chipboard adhesive
- Automotive, engineering-Gypsum board binder
- Pressure sensitive adhesives corrugation paper-Paint filler
Paper Industry Cosmetic and Pharmaceutical Industry
- Internal sizing - Dusting powder
- Filler retentio
n-
Make-up
-Surface sizing - Soap filler/extender
-Paper coating (regular and color) - Face creams
- Carbonless paper stilt material - Pill coating, dusting agent tablet binder/dispersing agent
- Disposable diaspers
- Feminine products sacks
Explosives Industry Mining Industry Miscellaneous
- Wide range bind ing agent- Ore flotation- Biodegradable plastic film
- Match-head binder - Ore sedimentation- Dry cell batteries
- Oil well drilling mud- Printed circuit boards
- Leather finishing
Fig. 6 Non-food uses of starch
G.Coppola et al.
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4.2 Disposal Processes andEnvironmental Impact
ofBioplastic Packaging
When considering packaging applications, market prices of
bioplastics still result higher than the conventional plastic
ones, so they access the market mainly for private consump-
tion. This consideration leads us to the fact that bioplastic
disposal routes mainly involve household consumption.
Figure7 below reports the actual discarding processes
followed for some bioplastic packaging types (Andreas Det-
zel and Kauertz 2015). As a result, composting is the main
route end for disposal, but still a consistent fraction of the
total mass reaches the residual waste and eventually be sent
to incinerators, this because of mistakes in the disposal pro-
cess or even separation by screening in the disposal plants
(Ahamed etal. 2021).
Grundmann and Wonschik published a study on how
bioplastic bags could interact in some fermentation dis-
posal plants in Germany (Grundmann and Wonschik 2011).
Anaerobic fermentation, as well as hydrolysis analysis, has
been done to test this behaviour. Results show how ther-
mophilic features are needed actually to act fermentation
processes, while the higher degradation degrees fall around
20% values.
An extended life cycle assessment analyses have been
addressed in the study of bio-PE systems by considering the
steps below (Andreas Detzel and Kauertz 2015):
• Manufacture of the primary materials (bio-PE and
PE-LD)
• Transport of the new product to processing
• Manufacture of the film products
• Transport of the film products
• Disposal of the films (WIP)
• Utilization of the films (recycling)
• Allocation of the use of secondary materials and second-
ary energy from recycling and disposal processes in the
form of credits
• Accounting (credit) for the CO2 bound in the bio-PE.
The following graphs present some of the results of the
above-mentioned LCA analysis (see Table3).
As a conclusion, it emerges that, compared to fossil-
based plastics, bio-PE has better responses in Climate
Fig. 7 Disposal flowchart of bioplastic packaging (Andreas Detzel and Kauertz 2015)
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Change and Consumption of Fossil Resources impact, but
lacks in other features like Acidification, Eutrophication,
and Human Toxicity impact factors.
5 Bioplastic Sources
5.1 Agricultural Crops
Bioplastics can be produced from polysaccharides (e.g.,
starch, cellulose, chitosan/chitin), proteins (e.g. casein,
gluten), and other carbon sources (Nachwachsende and
Agency 2020).
Currently, the most used bioplastic is thermoplastic
starch, obtained by enzymatic saccharification and microbial
fermentation (Fig.8) or by modifying starch with plasticiz-
ers with hydrophilic properties (Mojibayo etal. 2020).
Nevertheless, starch-based bioplastics treated with plas-
ticizers and stored for long time face recrystallization and
consequent deterioration of mechanical properties. To over-
come this problem, starch-based bioplastics’ performance
may be improved by the addition of nanoparticles to obtain
nanocomposite bioplastics used in automotive components,
packaging materials, and drug delivery (Mose and Maranga
2011).
Starch is usually obtained from different terrestrial crops.
Distilled water, glycerol, and vinegar were used to mod-
ify cassava starch for the production of bioplastic sheets
(Mojibayo etal. 2020). Bioplastics from cassava starch
were re-inforced also by coconut husk fibers (Babalola and
Olorunnisola 2019). Condensation polymerization was per-
formed to produce bioplastic from corn starch and glycerin
to obtain nanocomposites for packaging applications (Ateş
and Kuz 2020). Other starch sources are potatoes, wheat,
and tapioca. The finest, smoothest, flexible and strong bio-
plastic was produced from tapioca starch (Gökçe 2018), but
the potato-derived starch showed the best properties in terms
Table 3 Climate Change and Consumption of Fossil Resources indi-
cators, comparative LCA of film packaging made of fossil PE and
bio-PE (Algieri etal. 2013)
Climate change
[PE_film_30g/
m2]
Fossil resources
[PE_film_30g/m2]
kg CO2 equiva-
lents per m2 of
film
kg crude oil
equivalents per m2
of film
bio-PE fossil PE bio-PE fossil PE
Disposal in the 2nd LC 0.02 0.02 – –
Recycling 0.005 0.005 0.001 –
Disposal in the 1st LC 0.05 0.05 – –
Tansport of finished product 0.02 0.02 – –
Processing 0.01 0.01 0.001 0.001
Transport of new goods 0.005 0.005 0.001
Manufacture of primary
materials
0.04 0.06 0.01 0.039
CO2 uptake – 0.07 – – –
Secondary energy allocation
LC1
– 0.02 – 0.02 – 0.005 – 0.005
Secondary energy allocation
LC2
– 0.01 – 0.01 – 0.001 – 0.001
Secondary material alloca-
tion
– 0.01 – 0.01 – 0.005 – 0.005
Fig. 8 Bioplastic production
from starch (Chaisu 2016)
G.Coppola et al.
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of extraction, ease of working, texture, and potential drying
(Hamidon 2018). Composite bioplastics from tapioca starch
and sugarcane bagasse fiber were recently investigated and
ultrasounds treatment improved properties by enhancing the
tensile strength and decreasing the moisture absorption rate
(Asrofi etal. 2020).
Among proteins, wheat gluten can be processed to pro-
duce bioplastics (Rasheed 2011; Jiménez-Rosado etal.
2019).
Sugarcane is exploitable for bioplastic production by bac-
terial sugar assimilation (Pohare etal. 2017).
Finally, oil is a good carbon source for the production of
bioplastic. Cottonseed oil (Magar etal. 2015), soybean oil
(Park and Kim 2011), crude palm kernel oil, jatropha oil,
crude palm oil, palm olein, corn oil, and coconut oil were
typically investigated (Wong etal. 2012).
Lignocellulosic biomass is another promising resource
for bioplastic production avoiding the consumption of food
crops. Nevertheless, it requires suitable cost-effective pre-
treatments for decomposition into sugar monomers (Brodin
etal. 2017; Govil 2020).
5.2 Organic Waste Sources
Cassava and other crops require large land areas, water, and
nutrients. Moreover, they compete with the food supply, and
their use to produce bioplastics is not sustainable. Instead, it
is interesting to consider the organic waste source to valorize
a residue and turn a problem into an opportunity in a circular
economy approach (Yadav etal. 2019).
Wastes from the food-processing industry are an impor-
tant potential source of bioplastics (Tsang 2019; Jõgi and
Bhat 2020). Vegetable wastes used to produce novel bioplas-
tic films were carrots, radicchio, parsley, and cauliflowers
(Perotto 2018). Novel starch- and/or cellulose-based bio-
plastics were produced from rice straw (Fig.9), an agricul-
tural waste usually used for bioethanol production (Agustin
etal. 2014; Bilo 2018), and other agricultural wastes (Chaisu
2016).
Extrusion of rice bran and kraft lignin—that are industrial
by-products of brown rice production and wood pulping pro-
cess, respectively—produced a bioplastic with good extrud-
ability and mechanical properties (Klanwan etal. 2016).
A residual product of crude oil palm production is an
empty fruit bunch, composed of cellulose, hemicellulose,
and lignin. Having high cellulose content (36.67%), this
abundant waste could be used to produce bioplastics (Isroi
and Panji 2016; Isroi etal. 2017). Microcrystalline cellu-
lose and glycerol were added to keratin from waste chicken
feathers to produce biopolymeric films (Ramakrishnan etal.
2018; Sharma etal. 2018). Microcrystalline cellulose was a
re-inforcing additive in bioplastic production also from avo-
cado seeds (Sartika etal. 2018), jackfruit seeds (Lubis etal.
2018), and cassava peels (Maulida and Tarigan 2016). Waste
cassava peels were investigated in combination with kaffir
lime essential oil for future applications in industry and med-
icine (Masruri etal. 2019). Cocoa pod husk and sugarcane
Fig. 9 Synthesis of bioplastics
from rice straw (TFA: trifluoro-
acetic acid) (Bilo 2018)
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bagasse, which are wastes from the chocolate industry and
the sugar industry, respectively, are promising for the pro-
duction of biodegradable plastic films (Azmin etal. 2020).
Bioplastics could be produced by injection molding from
rapeseed oil production by-products, such as press cake or
meal (Delgado etal. 2018). New bioplastics were prepared
from potato peels and waste potato starch with eggshells
and/or chitosan (from exoskeleton seafood wastes) as addi-
tives (Kasmuri and Zait 2018; Bezirhan Arikan and Bilgen
2019). Also, banana peels were used to produce a bioplastic
with the addition of corn starch, potato starch, sage, and
glycerol (Sultan and Johari 2017; Azieyanti etal. 2020).
Bloodmeal is a low-value protein-rich by-product from meat
processing, that is convertible into a bioplastic material
(Low etal. 2014). Bioplastic fibers were fabricated also from
gum arabic by electrospinning method (Padil etal. 2019).
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) is a group of biodegrad-
able plastics produced by microorganisms from renewable
sources (Shraddha etal. 2011) by the three pathways in
Fig.10.
Among PHAs sources, researchers investigated chicken
feather hydrolysate (Benesova etal. 2017), animal fat waste
(Riedel 2015), lignocellulosic biomass hydrolysate (Bhatia
2019), grass biomass (Davis 2013), fruit pomace, waste fry-
ing oils (Follonier 2014), olive oil mill pomace (Waller etal.
2012), saponified waste palm oil (Mozejko and Ciesielski
2013), low-quality sludge palm oil (Kang 2017), waste oil
palm biomass (Hassan 2013), spent coffee grounds (Nielsen
etal. 2017) and other carbon sources (rice straw, maltose,
glucose, sugarcane liquor, corn steep liquor, corn stover liq-
uor, cheese whey, waste potato starch, sugar beet molasses,
etc.) (Khatami etal. 2021; Marjadi and Dharaiya 2010; Tri-
pathi etal. 2012). Another interesting resource is the organic
fraction of municipal solid wastes convertible into PHAs
by acidogenic fermentation of pre-treated and hydrolyzed
biomass (Ivanov etal. 2015; Ebrahimian etal. 2020).
Recent works investigated PHA production from vola-
tile fatty acids, obtained by the anaerobic digestion of waste
paper (Al-Battashi 2019; Al Battashi etal. 2020).
The most common PHA is polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB),
produced from low-cost sugarcane molasses by Bacillus
cereus (Suryawanshi etal. 2020) or Staphylococcus epider-
midis (Sarkar etal. 2014), cheap agro-residues by Bacillus
sp. (Getachew and Woldesenbet 2016), date syrup by Pseu-
dodonghicola xiamenensis (Mostafa etal. 2020), non-food
sugars from oil palm frond (Zahari etal. 2015) or biodiesel
industry by-products (García 2013) or used cooking oil
(Martino 2014) by Cupriavidus necator, wheat straw ligno-
cellulosic hydrolysates by Burkholderia sacchari (Cesário
etal. 2014), wheat bran hydrolysate by Ralstonia eutropha
(Annamalai and Sivakumar 2016), bakery waste hydrolysate
by Halomonas boliviensis (Pleissner 2014). An innovative
approach consists of PHB production from landfill methane
by methanotrophs (Chidambarampadmavathy etal. 2017).
Fig. 10 The three metabolic pathways for PHA production (PhaA:
b-ketothiolase; PhaB: acetoacetyl coenzyme A(CoA) reductase;
PhaC: PHA synthase; FabG: 3- ketoacyl acyl carrier protein (ACP)
reductase; PhaG: acyl-ACP-CoA transacylase; PhaJ: enoyl-C ketoacyl
acyl carrier protein (ACP) reductase; PhaG: acyl-ACP-CoA transac-
ylase; PhaJ: enoyl-C) (Khatami etal. 2021)
G.Coppola et al.
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5.3 Algae‑Based Sources
Microalgae are a promising alternative source for bioplas-
tics production because of their fast growth and no competi-
tion with food (Rahman and Miller 2017). Recently, several
works investigated the synthesis of bioplastics from micro-
algae (Beckstrom etal. 2020; Simonic and Zemljic 2020).
Microalgae could be used directly as biomass to produce
bioplastics or indirectly by the extraction of PHBs and starch
within microalgae cells. Other approaches include the pro-
duction of microalgae-polymer blends through compression/
hot molding, melt mixing, solvent casting, injection mold-
ing, or twin-screw extrusion (Cinar etal. 2020).
The most investigated microalgae were Chlorella and
Spirulina. Chlorella seems to have better bioplastic behav-
ior, whereas Spirulina showed better blend performance
(Zeller etal. 2013). Different species of Chlorella were
used in biomass-polymer blends containing polymers and
additives (Cinar etal. 2020). Moreover, bioplastic may be
produced from Chlorella pyrenoidosa (Das etal. 2018) and
Chlorella sorokiniana-derived starch granules (Gifuni etal.
2017). Similar to Chlorella, Spirulina was investigated for
bioplastic production (Cinar etal. 2020). For example, a
bioplastic-based film was produced from salt-rich Spirulina
sp. residues with the addition of polyvinyl alcohol (Zhang
etal. 2020). Another bioplastic was prepared from Spirulina
platensis, showing good biodegradability (Maheshwari and
Ahilandeswari 2011). Other microalgae or cyanobacte-
ria used to produce bioplastics were Chlorogloea fritschii
(Monshupanee etal. 2016), Calothrix scytonemicola (John-
sson and Steuer 2018), Neochloris oleoabundans (Johns-
son and Steuer 2018), residual Nannochloropsis after oil
extraction (Yan 2016), Nannocloropsis gaditana (Torres
etal. 2015; Fabra etal. 2017), Phaeodactylum tricornutum
(Hempel 2011), and Scenedesmus almeriensis (Johnsson
and Steuer 2018). Ten green microalgae were screened for
starch production and starch-based bioplastic development.
C. reinhardtii 11-32A resulted in the most promising starch-
producing strain with interesting plasticization properties
with glycerol at 120°C (Mathiot etal. 2019).
A microalgae consortium cultivated and harvested in a
wastewater treatment plant was used as biomass to be mixed
with glycerol as a plasticizer to obtain bioplastics (López
Rocha etal. 2019).
New composites were formed by combination of micro-
algal biomass and petroleum. (Cinar etal. 2020; Chia etal.
2020). The PHB production is feasible in microalgae used
as bioreactors by the introduction of bacterial pathways into
microalgal cells (Hempel 2011) (Fig.11).
Besides microalgae, macroalgae or seaweeds are aquatic
plants rich in polysaccharides and potentially promising
sources of bioplastics (Rajendran etal. 2012; Thiruchelvi
etal. 2020). The whole red macroalga Kappaphycus alva-
rezii was recently investigated to produce a bioplastic film
with the addition of polyethylene glycol as a plasticizer for
food packaging applications (Sudhakar etal. 2020).
5.4 Wastewater Sources
Wastewaters are rich in organic matter and salts and are an
important resource to be reused for different applications
(Hoek etal. 2016, Dasgupta etal. 2016). Casein-rich dairy
wastewater is a possible substrate for the manufacturing
of bioplastics (Fricke etal. 2019), but the physical proper-
ties of obtained brittle films were successfully improved by
the addition of polysaccharides with proteins (Ryder etal.
2020). Starch-based bioplastic was developed from potato
processing industry wastewater (Arikan and Ozsoy 2011).
Activated sludge generated during the wastewater treatment
is very abundant and could produce PHBs by thermal crack-
ing (Liu etal. 2019). Mannina etal. (Mannina etal. 2019)
recently implemented a new protocol to extract PHAs from
mixed microbial cultures in a synthetic effluent simulat-
ing a fermented oil mill wastewater. PHAs were produced
from municipal wastewater by a two-step process, consist-
ing of anaerobic fermentation producing volatile fatty acids
(VFA), and aerobic conversion of VFA to PHA by pure or
mixed microorganisms (Pittmann etal. 2013). Moreover, a
two-step process was recently suggested to produce PHAs
from cheese whey agro-industrial wastewater (Carlozzi etal.
2020). Instead, a three-step process was proposed to accu-
mulate PHAs in paper mill wastewater (Jiang etal. 2012).
Other wastewaters investigated for bioplastic production
are wood mill effluents (Ben etal. 2011) and municipal sew-
age sludge (Bluemink etal. 2016).
The advantage and disadvantages of each source category
are summarized in the following Table4.
6 Conclusion
The research, application opportunities, sourcing and sus-
tainability of bioplastics production have been discussed to
clarify the field.
Fig. 11 PHB production from microalgae (Cinar etal. 2020)
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Table 4 Advantages and disadvantages of different bioplastic source categories
Bioplastic source category Advantages Disadvantages
Agricultural crops Renewability Abundance
Closed carbon cycle
Mature processing technology in large scale
Threat to food security and eco-systems
Use of large fertile land, water, and nutrients
Negative contribute to the eco-balance
Conflict food vs bioenergy/ biofuels/ biomateri-
als
Long-term unsustainability
Necessary pre-treatment of lignocellulosic
biomass
Long time for production
High processing cost (mostly for PHAs micro-
bial production). Required bioaugmentation,
metabolic engineering and cost-effective down-
stream processing in PHA production
Oganic wastes Abundant low-cost/free sources
Management of environmentally problematic
wastes
Conversion of wastes to valuable resources
No competition with food and feed
Possible localization and/or seasonability of
wastes
Cost and complexity of logistic operations
Necessary pre-treatment of lignocellulosic
biomass
Microalgae Fast growth rates
High productivity. Cultivation on non-arable
land
Utilization of degraded and saline water sources
Integration with waste streams
Wastewater remediation
Broad environmental tolerance
Reduced competition with food
Large volumes of water are required for indus-
trial scale
Expensive technology of cultivation, harvesting,
extraction and fractionation of components in
a large scale
High energy costs of cultivation and processing
Macroalgae High biomass
Cost-effective
Easily cultivated in natural environment
Able to grow in wide range of environments
Harvested throughout the year
Biotechnological and genetic engineering tech-
niques required
Premature large-scale processing technology
Wastewaters High availability
Abundant and cheap
No competition with food and feed
A waste becomes a resource
Complex new technologies, generating further
wastes
Low production yield
G.Coppola et al.
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To further advance the application of bioplastic, it is very
necessary to manage carefully the waste disposal. Recycling
appears the best solution from that point, for disposal of
the bio-based product to maximize the environmental foot-
print as well as reduce the renewable resources consump-
tion. Recycling of a bioplastic leads to an overall decrease
of environmental impact which may associated with the pro-
duction and disposal of the bioplastic itself. It is worth not-
ing that due to the improper management and applications
of bioplastics, the information reported in this paper can be
useful for the environmental reliability. PHA materials are
the main resource to substitute conventional plastic use in
most of the engineering applications fields. Nowadays, the
PHA costs of production are too high, but further research
on technology and sourcing can reduce manufacturing costs
for a versatility and heterogeneity and strengthen the appli-
cations of bioplastic.
Funding Open access funding provided by Università dellaCalabria
within the CRUI-CARE Agreement.
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attri-
bution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adapta-
tion, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source,
provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes
were made. The images or other third party material in this article are
included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated
otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in
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permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will
need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a
copy of this licence, visit http:// creat iveco mmons. org/ licen ses/ by/4. 0/.
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