Utilization of bio-polymeric additives for a sustainable production strategy in pulp and paper manufacturing: A comprehensive review

• Bio-polymers can conventionally be used as multifunctional additives in paper making. • Common applications are for strength, retention, coatings, and resistivity. • Biobased additives are non-toxic to the environment. • The review summarizes the recent trends of bio-based additives in paper-making. Renewable and bio-based materials have gained great interest on an industrial scale owing to environmental issues. Paper industries also are constantly exploring bio-resources for intrinsic chemico-physical property enhancement of paper and paper products. These bio-resources will potentially increase their cyclability besides making paper compatible beyond traditional uses. Mechanical beating or use of chemical additives or the combination of these methods are widely used to improve critical paper characteristics such as strength, surface smoothness, density, brightness, filler retention, water and grease resistivity etc. These chemical additives as mill effluents are hazardous and have detrimental effect on environment. So, to move ahead of traditional practices, the present review discusses about the production and utility of abundantly available renewable bio-polymers and their products such as starch, cellulose, plant-based proteins, microbial biopolymers, animal-based biopolymers, and natural gums etc. They represent ample prospect in terms of research and development on their functionality and industrial applications.