Use of eco friendly and energy saving biomaterials and processes have enabled to overcome the effects of growing urbanization and population along with increasing agro-industrial wastes. This has led to a new approach to the industrial design of products and processes along with the implementation of sustainable manufacturing strategies to "optimize the total material cycle from virgin material to finished material, to component, to product, to waste product and to ultimate disposal". Developing countries such as Brazil possess abundantly available but underutilized biomaterial resources, which may possibly give excellent opportunities for scientists to discover methods for their better utilization. This talk presents attempts made so far on the developments of biodegradable composites based on biomaterials of Brazil, with details on their processing matrix-reinforcement combinations, morphology properties and market. Some results of the studies carried out by the author and his colleagues at UFPR-Curitiba are also included.
Biopolymers; lignocellulosic fibers; processing of composites
