| Animal Protein Waste Turned into Bioplastic |
|
A process developed by Waikato University chemical engineer Dr Johan Verbeek and Masters student Lisa van den Bergwill allows animal waste to be turned into useful and biodegradable plastic. The new process, developed over two years, can turn blood meal and feathers into a biodegradable plastic using industry-standard plastic extrusion and injection moulding machinery. "The material we can produce has the strength of polyethylene - the plastic used in milk bottles and plastic supermarket bags - but it's fully biodegradable," says Johan. "Proteins are polymers so we know they can be turned into plastics. Plant proteins have been successfully used to make bioplastics, but animal protein has always ended up gumming up the extruder. The process we've developed gets round that. People said it couldn't be done, but we did it!" Bookmark this page!      |
| Source: | redorbit.com |
| Click here to read more | |
Be the first to know!
