Production of Bioplastic from Corn Starch and Sugarcane Bagasse
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Date
2017-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
There is an increasing need for biodegradable plastics because they are environmentally friendly and can replace petroleum-based non-degradable plastics which pollute the environment. Recently huge efforts are exerted in substitution of petroleum based polymers by biodegradable ecofriendly composites because of the toxic effect of the synthetic polymers. Petroleum base polymers are not sustainable as they depend on depleting fossils. This work studies the effect of bagasse (sugarcane byproduct) fiber weight fraction on starch based composite.
This study also investigated the potentials of starch and sugar cane cellulose fiber for bioplastic productions. The effect of oven drying and starch-cellulose fiber ratio was also studied. The experimental design was employed using design expert 6.0.8 two factor three level central composite designs (CCD) including five replicates at the center point of optimization study requiring 13 experiments on the 3 responses were analyzed namely tensile strength, water absorption and elongation at break.
Results have shown that the addition of cellulose fiber (5 wt%, 10 wt% and 15 wt%) to selected gram of corn starch(5g), the value obtained were for tensile strength (13.27MPa, 24.45MPa and 22.18MPa, respectively), water absorption (36.90, 23.6 and 24.01% respectively) and elongation at break (20.25, 5.268 and 9.58% respectively), these values are the averages of replication treatment.
From the analysis of experimental results the maximum and minimum value of tensile strength (26.81 and 11.55MPa), water absorption (39.02% and 20.45%) and elongation at break (25.99% and 4.32%) was obtained respectively. Starch-derived bioplastic reinforced with cellulose fiber at the optimal point of the responses namely tensile strength, water absorption and elongation at break, which are biodegradable, have been prepared and characterized for FTIR, compound microscope, Transparency, solubility, and density.
Results obtained under optimal condition were found that Transparency of reinforced bioplastic reduced by 5% with respect to the control. Also its solubility decreased from (14.78% to 10.17%) while density was increased from (1.059g/ml to1.069g/ml). Evidence of the existence of strong interactions between the starch matrix and the cellulose fibers was revealed from detailed Fourier Transform Infra-red (FTIR) and compound microscopic evaluation.
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Process Engineering