Environmentally friendly, biodegradable biopolymers can be prepared via the chemical modification of starch. These biopolymers are able to partially or totally substitute synthetic additives
used today in the chemical or environmental technologies. Through the building of ionic function
groups into polymeric chains of the starch ion exchangers, flocculants or dispersants can be
produced. In this paper, we examine water-soluble ionic derivatives called polyelectrolytes. By
phosphorylating starch while preserving or maybe increasing the molecular weight of the native
starch polymers, anionic flocculating agents can be prepared. If the polymer chains degrade
during the reaction, the products will act as dispersing agents in aqueous suspensions. It is
apparent that, during the phosphorylation reaction, the changes in the molecular weight
distribution and the ionic charge of the polymers have crucial importance. In our experiments,
we investigated the solid-phase reactions by following the change in the molecular weight
distributions, using size exclusion chromatography, and the change in the charge densities, using
a particle charge detector. The efficiency of the products was tested in the laboratory, and the
results were evaluated by means of severity parameters.
Nowadays, energetic utilization of biomass, biotechnology attracts a big attention not only from the environmental point of view but also have a social, political and economical impact. According to the Directive 2003/30/EC of the European Parliament and the European Council the emission of greenhouse gases can be reduced by 49% using bioethanol produced by a manufacturing process based on corn, instead of crude oil based fuels. Moreover in Hungary from 1st of July 2007 only gasoline with at least 4.4% bioethanol content is commercialized. In this article, some concrete examples of successful developments and/or implementation of biomass projects in Hungary are given such as: production friendly raw synthetic material at "Nitrokémia" chemical plant, manufacture of bioethanol by "Hungrana" and "Győr Distillery" companies, bio-ethyl-tert-buthyl-ether production by MOL Pls. Danube Refinery, research on new generation of biofuels. The main advantages and disadvantages as well motivations for further research and development of Hungarian bio-industrial and bio-consumer sectors are discussed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.