Producción de plástico biodegradable para el uso en alimentos a partir del almidón de residuos de yuca (Manihot esculenta)

Abstract

The aim of theresearch isto produce bioplastic from starch obtained from cassava(Manihotesculenta)residues, in order to use them asfood wrapping, this willpreserve theproduct in good conditions and will also reduce the impact caused by the generation of conventional plastic waste,in addition it will generate jobs, especially in the agricultural areadue to the demand that can be produced with the use of raw material. The tuber residues were obtained from sea-food restaurants and markets from Riobamba. The starting process was the washing, peelingas well as the physicochemical and microbiological analysis of the raw material;then the starch was extractedbased on the INEN 1456 norm, where time and speed variables were usedwith the help of 2k factorial design to obtain the best treatment, this was mixed with plasticizer and solvent in which the 2k factorial design was also usedaltering the concentration of starch and plasticizer with four treatments and four repetitions each, then theplasticsheets obtained were put under physicochemical and mechanical tests according to the INEN 2635 norm. The values obtained for bioplastic degradation in water were 90% in21 days, soil 70% in42 days and air 40% in42 days. Finally, to evaluate the research feasibilityit was necessary to analyze the bioplastic cost of production according to the cost/benefitanalysis obtaining a profitability of 21%. As this is afeasibleproject, it is recommended to useorganic waste for the biopolymersproductionwhich helps to reduce the irrational use of synthetic plastics.