Utilization of high-carbohydrate food wastes as the feedstock for degradable plastics
Wastestreams from food processing industries have become an economic burden as well as a serious environmental problem. In the United States, billions of pounds of potato processed each year is typically discarded or sold as cattle feed at $3-6/ton. For large food processing plants, removal of more than 1 million gallons of waste/day/plant is required. As a potential solution to this economic and environmental problem, Argonne National Laboratory is developing technology that (1) bioconverts existing food processing wastestream into lactic acid, and (2) utilizes lactic acid for making environmentally safe, degradable plastics. Although the initial substrate for Argonne's process development is potato waste, the process will be applied to many other high-carbohydrate food wastes. Argonne has developed a process to bioconvert greater than 90% of the fermentable starch in solid potato waste to glucose. Lactic acid is produced from glucose via fermentation and subsequently recovered/purified for plastic synthesis. A continuous lactic acid fermentation and recovery process has been designed. Batch fermentation data showed good cell growth and excellent yields (greater than 95%) of lactic acid production from the hydrolyzed potato waste. Three product recovery processes (electrodialysis, liquid-liquid extraction, and esterification) are being evaluated. Plastics containing lactic acid can be designed to have various mechanical properties and degradation rates. Argonne is developing lactic acid plastics that have some novel features. These environmentally-safe, degradable plastics have many attractive applications such as composting bags and agriculture mulch films. Other potential applications of lactic acid polymers include programmable pesticide and fertilizer delivery systems.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab., IL (USA)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE/CE
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-31109-ENG-38
- OSTI ID:
- 5377990
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8911133-1; ON: DE90003572
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Food processing waste conference, Atlanta, GA (USA), 6-8 Nov 1989
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
FOOD INDUSTRY
WASTE PRODUCT UTILIZATION
CHEMICAL FEEDSTOCKS
FERMENTATION
FOOD PROCESSING
LACTIC ACID
PLASTICS
POLYMERS
POTATOES
BIOCONVERSION
CARBOXYLIC ACIDS
FOOD
HYDROXY ACIDS
INDUSTRY
MATERIALS
ORGANIC ACIDS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PETROCHEMICALS
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
PLANTS
PROCESSING
SYNTHETIC MATERIALS
TUBERS
VEGETABLES
320305* - Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization- Industrial & Agricultural Processes- Industrial Waste Management