Biobased Materials Production from Biodiesel Residuals of Rapeseed

A full biouse of crops for multiple end-uses would contribute to a more economically attractive and thereby more sustainable use of the crop. The purpose of this paper was to evaluate options to develop materials from residuals of rapeseed, originating from the biodiesel (RME) production. Compression molding of rapeseed flour and rapeseed cake residuals was evaluated together with additions of different amount of plasticizer (glycerol), as well as use of various pressing temperatures and times. The results were promising and led to a compact and hard, although somewhat brittle material. The potential to produce materials from the rapeseed residuals from RME production is thus high. Glycerol content was the most important factor increasing tensile strength in the material followed by pressing time. No clear protein polymerization was detected in the produced materials. Thus, despite the promising results, methods to obtain increased protein polymerization should be searched for. Therefore, binding agents, additives, or pretreatment of the rapeseed residuals are needed, or the proteins have to be purified, in order to generate a better polymerization of the proteins.