Overview

Nature produces thousand billion tons of biomass materials every year. Polysaccharides (glucans), polymers based on sugar molecules (carbohydrates), are a major part of the annually produced biomass and only a very small percentage is currently used by man.

The most common sugar found in polysaccharides is glucose. They have two main functions in nature:

• the first is a structural role in plants (cellulose, pectin) and animal skeletons (chitin)
• the second function consists of energy storage (starch and glycogen).

Natural polysaccharides are renewable, CO2 neutral, completely biodegradable and have biocompatible characteristics (compatibility with living tissues).

They are not used extensively for making materials except cellulose used as a component of wood and for paper.

Polysaccharides offer a very promising source for materials of tomorrow. A complete new industry will emerge, based on glucose and its derivatives and polymers.