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BIOPLASTIC
BIOPLASTIC
SUBMITTED BY:
Valdez, Loisroi R.
SUBMITTED TO:
Instructor
December 2016
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
I. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
From cars to food wrap, you can make anything and everything from plastics—
unquestionably the world's most versatile materials. But there's a snag. Plastics
are synthetic (artificially created) chemicals that don't belong in our world and
don't mix well with nature. Public pressure to clean up has produced plastics
that seem to be more environmentally friendly.
In bioplastic production, 50% are starch based and the remaining are cellulose
and protein based. Starch based bioplastic can use corn kernels, sugar cane,
newspaper, plant scraps and banana peels as sources of starch.
The Philippines is the second largest exporter of bananas after Ecuador, with
some 2.6 m tonnes exported in 2012. That year, the exports from the Philippines
(essentially Cavendish cultivars) made up 98% of the Asian banana trade. Two
thirds of the exported volumes were shipped to Japan, China and South Korea.
In 2015, the country produced nearly 9.1m tonnes of bananas on 443,270 ha,
with Cavendish cultivars accounting for about 50% of national banana
production, Saba (29%) and Lakatan (11%). Latundan (a Silk cultivar) and other
cultivars accounted for about 11%. At the beginning of the century, as many as
90 cultivars were estimated to be grown for local consumption.
Among those, banana peels are waste and is the best option in choosing of raw
material. Also, banana production increased by 2.8% in 2014 to 8.88 million
metric tons (MT), per Bureau of Agricultural Statistics’ (BAS) which make it an
abundant source in the country. These are found to have minimum 15% starch
when immature and 30-40% when ripe.
In 2014, global plastic production reached 311 million metric tons, with 59
million metric tons in Europe alone. (Global Statistics, 2014) The production
process used to make plastics consumes about 10% of oil and gasoline both
produced and imported by the U.S. Globally, the production of plastic accounts
for 270 million tons of oil and gasoline in order to meet the demand for plastic
products. (Algix.com) When a plastic’s usefulness is over, it is readily dumped
into landfills and ocean environments. This gives a high impact on environmental
and economic problem. Bioplastics which are biodegradable and can be made
from scratch have a potential solution to the problem, environmentally and
economically. Also, banana peels which is the main raw material, are considered
agricultural waste that can be turned into some useful product such as
bioplastic.
During recent decades, there has been a continuous increase in the use of
plastics and it has become the major new material replacing some traditional
ones such as paper, steel and aluminum in many applications. The main
advantages of plastics are their low cost and lightweight. In addition, they are
easy to formulate and require low energy for their transportation and production.
The ever-growing production and use of plastics have led to a waste disposal
problem because, generally, they are inherently inert to the microorganisms or
the chemicals in an environment (Prinos, et al. 1998). Thus, they cannot degrade
when exposed to the environment. Conventional garbage disposal methods such
as incineration, landfill and recycling are not so attractive due to their respective
limitations. Incineration needs high temperatures of more than 800o C, which
makes it rarely used nowadays. Landfill has some problems of odor and the
scattering of lightweight waste materials by the wind. Recycling has not yet
gained widespread acceptance because of its difficulty in classifying and
separating the types of used plastics. For these reasons, there has been an
increased interest in the production and use of fully biodegradable polymers
replacing nonbiodegradable plastics
III. OBJECTIVES
GENERAL: The main objective of the experiment is to extract the starch from
the banana peels to produce a bioplastic sheet that conforms with the
standard properties.
PROPERTY STANDARD
Water absorption 22.70%
Tensile Strength 9.26 MPa
Melting Point 120 deg Celsius
Source: Green Polymer Composites Technology Properties and Applications
SPECIFIC:
The study utilizes banana peels as its major raw material for the production of
bioplastic. This will provide the factory owners a potential market for bioplastic
rather than ending up the banana peelings as waste.
Both the materials and procedure of this study could be utilized and developed
by other institutions and could be a reason for a local production of bioplastic
from the raw material. Moreover, this study would help create jobs for local
citizens.
To the Students
The concepts used and the manufacturing process, as well as the literature
gathered in this experiment could be used as reference for further studies related
to the development of banana starch based bioplastic. Students could also use
the process described in the experiment to observe the conversion of banana peel
to a bioplastic in a simplified laboratory set-up.
This study may serve as an additional reference for related and similar studies
of fellow researchers. Chemical engineers could help in conducting further
research and study of the process involved in the production of bioplastic. With
the help of this field, scientific and economic condition in the country could be
improved.
Temperature
Time
Type of solvent
Ratio of a material to reagent
Concentration of reagents
Type of catalyst
Molar ratio
CHAPTER II
A. Review of Related Literature
a. Raw Material
BANANA
Banana production increased by 2.8% in 2014 to 8.88 million metric tons (MT),
according to the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics’ (BAS) Major Crops Bulletin,
but this year’s output could suffer a setback as the prevailing mild El Niño has
started to affect harvest.
The average banana fruit has 32-35% skin. Banana peels generally contain 6 to
9 percent protein, 20 to 30 percent fiber and other components such as starch,
sugars, lignin, tannins and minerals in varying amounts. The exact quantity of
these components depends on the banana cultivar and its maturity. Green
banana peels contain much less starch (about 15%) while ripe banana peels
contain up to 30% free sugars.
The relationship between peel color and starch index, according to our chart,
shows a reasonable positive linear correlation
The relationship between pH changes and starch index is not linear, and best
fits an exponential curve (Fig. 4). During normal banana ripening, the starch-
iodine staining technique for assessing pulp ripe ness correlates well with color
and soluble solids. Use of the technique to evaluate pulp maturity should be of
value to both researchers and workers in the banana industry in evaluations
when internal ripeness is more important than appearance, when color is not a
usable index, or when temperature and humidity problems arise and external
and internal ripening are not well-correlated
GLYCEROL (PROPANE-1,2,3-TRIOL) AS PLASTICIZER
Usually, the second major component of a starch based film is the plasticizer,
which is used to overcome film brittleness caused by high intermolecular forces.
Plasticizing agents commonly used for thermoplastic starch production include
water and glycerol (Alves et al., 2007, Famá et al., 2006, Famá et al., 2007,
Jangehud and Chinnan, 1999, Mali et al., 2006 and Parra et al., 2004),
polyethylene glycol (Parra et al., 2004) and other polyols, such as sorbitol,
mannitol and sugars (Kechichian et al., 2010, Talja et al., 2008 and Veiga-Santos
et al., 2008).
b. Process
Starch consists of two different types of polymer chains, called amylose and
amylopectin, made up of adjoined glucose molecules. The hydrochloric acid is
used in the hydrolysis of amylopectin, which is needed in order to aid the process
of film formation due to the H-bonding amongst the chains of glucose in starch,
since amylopectin restricts the film formation. The sodium hydroxide used in the
experiment is simply used in order to neutralize the pH of the medium.
The 9th and 10th pilot experiment conducted had been successful in producing
plastic, but had started to decay after only 3 days. As a result of the research
done to address this issue, I found out that in order to improve shelf life of post-
harvest wild mango fruits, sodium metabisulphite can be used (Ibadan, 1991).
This is why the sodium metabisulphite solution was used in this experiment.
STARCH-BASED PLASTICS
Uses of Starch in the Plastic Industry Vilpoux and Averous (2003) enumerates
the typical uses of starch-based plastics.
Purchase bags – These were introduced in the market in 1999 and started being
used in many supermarkets in Scandinavia and in the Mediterranean Coast.
They were introduced in places where the collecting of organic wastes already
existed and where they were accepted as biodegradable compost bags.
Consumer goods packaging – The main market is that of silk paper, but there
are markets for magazines wrapping and bubble films, mainly for electronic
goods.
Food packaging – Bags for fruit, vegetables, and bakery products. Starch-based
plastics allow for a better breathing of the products.
Composting bags – Bags used in the selective collecting of organic waste, which
will be treated to produce a compounds.
Funerary goods – Wraps for corpses, in compliance with the rules on the use of
biodegradable materials
In the granular state, it has been used as filling agent for polyolefin and as a
component in synthetic polymer blends. According to Lawter and Fischer (2000),
starches have also been modified by means of “grafting” with vinyl monomers
(e.g., methyl acrylate), originating materials for injection in molds or extrusion.
It is possible to produce starch films through the grafting of polymers, such as
polyethylene (PE). Only the starch films is biodegradable and these films are
practically no longer used (Lawter, Fischer, 2000).
IODINE TEST
CHAPTER III
A. Experimental Study
The following are the raw materials needed for the production of
bioplastic from banana peels:
Procedure:
I. Preparation of Raw Materials