Novel One-Step Process for the Production of Bioplastic from Rapeseed Press Cake

Wassim Ammar (1) , Frédéric Delbecq (1) , Isabelle Vroman (2) , Houcine Mhemdi (1)

1 TIMR - Transformation Intégrée de la Matière Renouvelable
2 ITheMM - Institut de Thermique, Mécanique, Matériaux

Crude rapeseed cake was employed as the starting material for the preparation of protein-based bioplastic films through a wet process. A simple exposure of the agricultural waste to formic acid realized at 40 °C for 15 min could afford a slurry ready for producing robust bioplastic films by casting without another plasticizer addition. After determining the optimal process conditions, all films and membranes were successively characterized by DSC and FT-IR spectroscopy. They were also tested for their water absorption capacity, tensile strength, and elongation at break performance. The respective surface morphology and elementary composition of the products were determined by FE-SEM/EDX. Some attempts to improve their intrinsic properties were performed by loading graphene oxide inside the biopolymer three-dimensional matrix.

Domains: Chemical Sciences

Wassim Ammar, Frédéric Delbecq, Isabelle Vroman, Houcine Mhemdi. Novel One-Step Process for the Production of Bioplastic from Rapeseed Press Cake. Processes, 2021, 9 (9), pp.1498. ⟨10.3390/pr9091498⟩. ⟨hal-03560803⟩