FACULITY OF CHEMICAL AND FOOD ENGINEERING

DEPARTEMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

THESIS PROJECT TITLE: SYNTHSIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF BIOPLASTIC
FROM CORN STARCH AND SUGAR CANE BAGASSE FIBER
PREPARED BY ID NO
1. LEUL YITBAREK 0701959
2. MEKURIAW ALEMU 0702023
3. YALEWLET KASSA 0702468

ADVISOR: Mr. ASMARE.T

SUBMISSION DATE: 27/10/2011 E.C
OUT LINE
INTRODUCTION
STETMENT OF THE PROBLEM
OBJECTIVE
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT
METHDOLOGY
RESULT AND DISSCUTION
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATION
INTRODUCTION
• Plastics are polymers or macromolecules which have been modified with additives and
mechanically strong plastic structure that adopt a dimensionally stable form.

• Nowadays, plastic utilization is increasing rapidly. This is because plastics can be used in
many applications such as packaging, construction and automobile parts, etc.

• Plastic is made from crude oil, a nonrenewable resource. Although the plastic we use can
be recycled, the amount of solid waste generated by plastic is becoming a problem.

• Biodegradable polymers, specifically from renewable resources, are being examined for
replacement of synthetic plastics.
CONT’D
•A variety of renewable polymers are produced by plants such as cellulose, starch,
and protein. Agro-polymers, typically starch and bagasse, are being examined for
their sustainable nature due to vast agricultural resources available for use.
•The major difference between synthetic polymers and polymers found in nature is
that the natural polymers contain oxygen and nitrogen. The oxygen and nitrogen in
the polymer structure permit the polymer to biodegrade.
•In this research, environmental friendly plastic was produced using the addition of
cellulose fiber as a reinforcement material in corn starch matrix and glycerol as a
plasticizer in the process of solvent cast method.
STETMENT OF THE PROBLEM
• In Ethiopia many industries, commercials, homes and different institutions consume plastic
products for different purposes such as packaging, storage, handling, transportation, etc.

• Though plastics are useful, accumulation of them in the environment creates tremendous
problems for the world, presently and in the future. Environmental problems caused by
petroleum based plastics include changes in the carbon dioxide cycle, problems in
composting, and increased toxic emissions.

• The depletion of petroleum resources coupled with awareness of global environmental

problem provides the alternatives for new green materials that are compatible with the
environment and their development is independent of petroleum based resources.
CONT’D
•There are a number of alternatives by which one can avoid the impact
of waste plastic on the environment. Among these developments of
natural fiber (agricultural and industrial by product) reinforced
biodegradable plastic promotes the use of environmentally friendly
materials.
OBJECTIVE
•General Objective
 To produce bio-plastic from corn starch reinforced with sugar cane bagasse cellulose
fiber.

•Specific Objective
 To evaluate mechanical properties of bioplastic namely Tensile strength and elongation at
break
 To analyze effect of temperatures on bio plastic synthesis (drying temperature)
 To characterize physicochemical properties of bioplastic such as water solubility, water
absorption and density.
 compare biodegradability of bio plastic and petroleum based plastic
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT

• To stop dependency of our country on oil producing countries as well to save foreign
currency.

• To satisfying demand of plastic, no waste will be available in applying bio plastic.

• To increases the soil fertility since, oxygen and nitrogen compounds are available in the
plastic which are main substitute of soil fertility.

• To decrease the cost of plastic

• To decrease greenhouse gas released to the environment

METHDOLOGY
Equipment used in the laboratory
Equipment’s Purpose

Stirrer It is used for mixing the mixture

pH paper Used to measure PH of a solution

Beaker Used to hold the samples

Round bottom flask Used hold the mixture

Measuring cylinder It helps as to measure volume of solution

Filter cloth Used to separate solution

Air circulated oven Used to dry produced bio plastic

Hot plate It used to heat the mixture

Thermometer It helps as to measure temperature

Disc Miller It helps as to reduce size sugar cane bagasse of the sample

Weight balance Used to measure the mass of the sample

Water bath Used to Heat during bleaching process

Universal Tensile Testing machine It used for testing tensile strength of bio plastic

Glove Used for safety purpose

Tong To catch hot materials

CONT’D

Raw materials and Chemicals used in laboratory

Raw material and Chemical Purpose

Sulfur di oxide To prevent fermentation

Glycerol It act as plasticizer which lubricate the plastic

corn starch It used as a good bio degradable filer

Distilled Water Used as a solvent

NaOH Used to remove hemi cellulose from bagasse

NaCl Used as bleaching agent

HCl Used as killing microorganisms mixing

process

Glacial acetic acid Used as PH regulator

Sugar can bagasse Used as reinforcement material

Method
• Corn starch production procedure

cleaning waste

Steeping (soaking with s2o

water
+water)

Milling (to reduce size)

germ
Separation by hand (remove germ)

Fine grading

Separation (using Sedimentation Starch fiber and

cotton cloth) gluten

Liquid waste liquid waste

CONT’D
•Process flow diagram of bio plastic production
Bagasse

cleaning

corn
Bagass e milling

Starch
extraction Bleaching by NaCl

Mix s tarch with

dis tilled water Filtration by Heat lignin
cotton cloth

Gelatinization at 80oc
for 10 min Drying in oven

cellulos e
Mix gelatin & glycerol
and heat at 80oc for
15min Blending cellulos e &s tarch
heating for 15 minu at 90oc

Cas ting on foil

Drying in oven for 3hr at

temp 50oc

Bio plastic
Photo graph of produced bioplastics from a) starch reinforced with 20% cellulose fiber b)
starch reinforced with 15% cellulose fiber
CHARACTERIZATION
Evaluation of mechanical properties of developed bioplastic
Tensile strength and elongation at break
Tensile strength and elongation at break are the most important mechanical properties
of the packaging bio-plastic.
• Finally, both Tensile strength and percentage elongation at break were calculated
as follow

• Tensile strength at yield =

• %Elongation
CONT’D
Characterization of physicochemical properties of produced bioplastic
Water Absorption
•Finally, the water absorption was estimated by using the following formula
Percent Water Absorption = [(Wf - Wo)/Wo] x 100
Where,
Wf = represents the final weight of the film after 5 minutes of absorption

Wo = is the initial weight of the film.

CONT’D
• Water solubility
•The amount of water solubility was estimated using the following formula:
Water Solubility =%
Where
Mi = is the initial mass and

Mf = is the final mass of the sample.

CONT’D
•Density of developed bioplastic
The density of the starch based films was measured according to the following
procedure using 50ml beaker, three fourth of the total beaker volume was filled by
known weights of the film sample (Ws), then the beaker was filled by water until
over follow of the water had seen, next the weight of beaker including film sample
and water was measured, finally volume of the film sample (V) was calculated by
subtracting 50ml from the total mass inside the beaker.
 CONT’D
•Biodegradability test
Half kilo fertile soil and half kilo of animal dang were prepared with 500ml of distilled
water and then the specimen dried in an oven after weighing, buried in the prepared
soil-dung the bio plastic and petro based plastic together for a week. Then mass lose
calculation is done.
Mass lose rate=
Mass lose=Mb-Ma,
where, Mb=mass before buried, Ma=mass after buried
 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

• RESULT
Run Drying temperature(oc) Cellulose to starch Tensile strength(MPa) Water absorption(%) Elongation at break(%)
ratio(wt%)

1 40.00 10.00 11.2 48.4. 25.3

2 60.00 10.00 15.82 35.35 24.11

3 40.00 20.00 15.79 29.27 15.89

4 60.00 20.00 25.71 21.73 11.82

5 40.00 15.00 17.97 30.12 13.81

6 60.00 15.00 24.97 22.02 10.42

7 50.00 10.00 16.68 36.02 22.93

8 50.00 20.00 25.70 20.15 12.01

9 50.00 15.00 26.54 19.88 9.87

CONT’D
CONT’D
DISCUSSION

• From table 4.1 and the graph above we can observed that the maximum tensile
strength, minimum water absorption and elongation at break were obtained at 50 and
starch-cellulose composite of 15% (w/w) with 26.54 MPa Tensile strength, 19.88% of
water absorption and 9.87% of Elongation at break. From this result, increasing
temperature up to 50 and fiber ratio up to 15% increase all three responses because an
increase in baking temperature brought about an initial increase in the tensile strength
of the films, i.e. increasing the temperature results tensile strength increase to a
maximum for drying temperature of 50 , the strength was slightly decreased slightly as
the drying temperature is increased up to 60 .
CONT’D
• An increase in drying temperature brought about an initial decrease in the elongation
(extension at break) of the films which means lower value of elongation at break Water
absorption and elongation at break decreases with increasing tensile strength at a
temperature of 50 and 15% of SCB cellulose blended in starch matrix this is due to
starch by itself is brittle and could not form a flexible material. Most biopolymers are
brittle in nature with lower tensile strength and the addition of cellulose fiber enhances
the tensile strength, water absorption and Elongation at break values by acting as
reinforced material.
Physicochemical characterization result based on
experimental design
Run Drying Temperature(oc) Cellulose to starch ratio(wt%) Water solubility (%) Density (g/ml3 )

1 40 10 14.51 1.071

2 50 10 13.82 1.068

3 60 10 14.01 1.062

4 40 15 13.48 1.077

5 50 15 11.12 1.076

6 60 15 11.88 1.074

7 40 20 14.23 1.083

8 50 20 11.35 1.079

9 60 20 11.28 1.076
CONT’D
DISCUSSTION
• The swelling behavior of the plasticized starch based film formed with cellulose fibre
is shown in Table 4.2. and the above graphs. The film with a 15% of cellulose fibre
content at temperature 50oc had a lower swelling capacity than the films with 10%
and 20% cellulose fibre content at temperature 40,50 and 60oc. From the experimental
result the solubility of the specimen was 11.12% for starch-cellulose based (15%
cellulose fibre) bioplastic can recommend for packaging purposes. Based on the
results it can be recommended that films having a low solubility are favorable for the
dry goods packaging purpose.
CONT’D
• From table 4.2 and the graph was observed that density of film developed from 10%
cellulose fiber at temperature 60oc was 1.062g/ml and 15% cellulose fiber at
temperature 50oc was 1.076 g/ml.Therefore, there was an increment in density of
developed bio plastic this is may be due to the addition of cellulose fibre percentage.
Based on this results it can be recommended that film that have minimum density
better for the dry goods packaging purpose
 Biodegradability test
Type of plastic Initial mass(g) Final mass(g) Mass loss(g) Time for

disappearance
(day)
bio plastic 6.94 5.31 1.63 15
Petro based plastic 1.81 1.81 0.0 15

Mass loss of Bio plastic=6.94-5.31=1.63gm

Assuming equal mass is lost per day

Mass loss rate=1.63gm/15days =0.10867gm/day

Maximum days needed to completely disappear the 6.94gm bio plastic is

No days=6.94gm/0.10867gm/day =39.2 days

this is the approximate value because it considers 1.63gm bio plastic loss per week, but in reality this cannot happen due to the organisms
around the bio plastic increases exponentially from day to day because the bio plastic used as food.

The relation of food (bio plastic) and number of organisms is inversely related, this means as the number of organisms increase
exponentially the amount of food (bio plastic) decrease by same amount.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
CONCLUSION

The main point of this project was also investigate the effect of cellulose fibre to starch
ratio and oven drying temperature on the tensile strength, water absorption, elongation
at break, density and water solubility. Generally, as processing condition (cellulose fibre
and oven drying temperature) increase from low level to center point tensile strength
and density increases, but, elongation at break, water solubility and water absorption
were decreased at this condition. The development of bioplastic was very sensitive to
oven drying temperature and cellulose fibre ratio in all five responses that means
tensile strength, density, water absorption water solubility and elongation at break
CONT’D
From the experimental result the following optimal values were found; maximum
tensile strength of 26.54 MPa, water absorption of 19.88%, elongation at break of
9.87%, water solubility 11.12% and density 1.076gm/ml. And also the average
biodegradability rate was 0.1086gm/day, but mass lose rate (biodegradability rate) for
petro based plastic was zero because it takes long years to be degraded.
RECOMMENDATION
Even though bioplastic is synthesized the following points can be recommended further investigation.
 This study was done in the laboratory scale to produce bioplastic but the future study should focus on
industry scale production and characterization to improve quality, mechanical and physic-chemical
properties of fibre reinforced based bioplastic.
 the production of bioplastic reinforced with cellulose extracted from sugarcane bagasse fibre should be
modified using different technologies like extrusion, injection molding, blow molding etc.
 In order to produce more effective bioplastic from starch and cellulose fiber other processing factors such as
drying time, plasticizer ratio, starch gelatinization temperature and fibre particle size should be considered.
 corn starch is edible food it creates problem of food security of our country as well as the world so it is
better to use non-edible based starch source.
 A good bleaching agent should be used during the extraction of cellulose fiber from sugar cane bagasse such
as sodium chlorate, hydrogen peroxide, ethanol etc.
THANK YOU