Preparation and characterization of biodegradable film from wheat flour and rice bran extract

• Main Authors: Sze, Mark Anthony, Julaton, Juvimar, Andal, Justine Karl
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2014
• Subjects: Biodegradable products > Environmental aspects; Biodegradable package; Chemical Engineering
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/11479
• Institution: De La Salle University

The environmental impact of non-biodegradable waste materials from different households and industries that are discarded every day is one of the major problems nowadays. This phenomenon had driven the research community to develop biodegradable polymers and biodegradable films. The use of wheat flour as a raw material for the production of biodegradable film competes with food sources and leads to a relatively expensive process. Therefore, addition of an extract from an agricultural by-product like rice bran would lower the cost of production. The objective of the study is to investigate the effect of different ratios of wheat flour to rice bran extract (70:30, 80:20, and 90:10) on the properties of the film and compare the properties of the biodegradable film formed with different concentrations of glycerol (0.2-0.3 g glycerol/ g wheat flour and rice bran extract). The extraction of rice bran protein for the biodegradable film was done through the lyophilization of the liquid solution from mixing crude rice bran with water and 0.1M NaOH. The biodegradable films were created using different wheat flour to rice bran extract ratios in water heated with different glycerol contents. Based from the observed physical characteristics of the films formed, only those that contain 0.3 g glycerol/ g wheat flour and rice bran extract were subjected to further tests because of its greater potential to be used as food packaging material. The density gathered in the test ranged from 1.09 to 1.26 g/cm3 and the tensile strength ranged from 0.13 to 0.78 MPa. The results showed that the increase in rice bran extract content will result into the decrease in tensile strength and elongation of the film but has no significant effect to the density, solubility and modulus of elasticity of the biodegradable film. While an increase in the glycerol content will result into the decrease in tensile strength and modulus of elasticity but increase the elongation of the film. The glycerol has no significant effect to the density and solubility of the biodegradable film.