We introduce polynomial processes taking values in an arbitrary Banach space $B$ via their infinitesimal generator $L$ and the associated martingale problem. We obtain two representations of the (conditional) moments in terms of solutions of a system of ODEs on the truncated tensor algebra of dual respectively bidual spaces. We illustrate how the well-known moment formulas for finite dimensional or probability-measure valued polynomial processes can be deduced in this general framework. As an application we consider polynomial forward variance curve models which appear in particular as Markovian lifts of (rough) Bergomi-type volatility models. Moreover, we show that the signature process of a $d$-dimensional Brownian motion is polynomial and derive its expected value via the polynomial approach.