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Bioplastics and their thermoplastic blends from Spirulina and Chlorella microalgae
Author(s) -
Zeller Mark Ashton,
Hunt Ryan,
Jones Alexander,
Sharma Suraj
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.39559
Subject(s) - bioplastic , spirulina (dietary supplement) , biomass (ecology) , pulp and paper industry , materials science , thermoplastic , effluent , composite material , chemistry , environmental science , organic chemistry , raw material , biology , agronomy , environmental engineering , ecology , engineering
This research study focuses on the thermomechanical polymerization of microalgae protein biomass such as Chlorella and Spirulina to develop algal‐based bioplastics and thermoplastic blends. The algal protein biomass can grow on nutrient‐rich wastewater from livestock farms, municipal or industrial effluent sources, remediating the excess nitrogen and phosphorus. The algal bioplastics provide biodegradability that can be tailored to have a wide range of material properties suitable for various applications—consumable and disposable plastic products, agricultural plastic products, and horticultural planting containers. According to experimental results, pressure, temperature, content of plasticizer, and processing time are major variables in polymerization and structure stabilization during the compression molding process of both algal protein biomass and thermoplastic blends containing polyethylene polymer. Chlorella showed better bioplastic behavior than Spirulina microalgae, whereas Spirulina showed better blend performance. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 130: 3263–3275, 2013