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Bioplastics 2016
November 10-11, 2016
Volume 7 Issue 6(Suppl) J Bioremediat Biodegrad
ISSN: 2155-6199 JBRBD, an open access journal
conferenceseries .com
November 10-11, 2016 Alicante, Spain
International Conference onSustainable Bioplastics
J Bioremediat Biodegrad 2016, 7:6(Suppl)
Balancing performance and sustainability in natural fiber-reinforced composites
Umeyr Kureemun1, Lee Heow Pueh1, Tran Le Quan Ngoc2 and Yucheng Zhong1
1National University of Singapore, Singapore
2Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology, Singapore
Natural and synthetic fibers have been used increasingly as matrix reinforcements in various applications. While the latter
is popular for its generally superior mechanical properties, natural fibers are environmentally friendly and sustainable. As
more businesses are inclining towards going green, natural fibers have been gaining increasing attention in recent years, often
as a substitute or as a complementary to glass fibers. However, its utilization is usually bound to applications not requiring high
mechanical performance. In this study, we investigate an extended use of natural fiber-reinforced polymeric composites to
structural applications requiring higher mechanical performance, through hybridization with carbon fibers, aiming at a good
balance between performance and sustainability. Having more than one fiber type in a polymer matrix can potentially give
greater flexibility in achieving optimal material behavior and failure characteristics. Experimental investigation was carried out
on various flax-carbon reinforced polymer hybrid systems fabricated using a custom-designed composites prepreg extrusion
plant, suitable for large-scale industrial output, to impregnate fibers with a recyclable polymer, which are then hot-pressed,
producing composite laminates with high fiber volume fraction. The hybrid composite’s strengh and stiffness under tension and
bending is assessed at various carbon fibre loadings to study the reinforcing effect of carbon in flax-polypropylene composite.
Cheese whey valorization for polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) production
Colombo Bianca1, Pepè Sciarria Tommy1, Reis Maria2, Scaglia Barbara1 and Adani Fabrizio1
1University of Milan, Italy
2New University of Lisbon, Portugal
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are biopolyesters produced by different bacterial species as energy storage; with respect
to common bioplastics they have thermo-mechanical properties similar to those of traditional plastics, that make them
potential alternatives to plastics in the future. Nowadays, PHAs production is limited by high production costs due to the use of
pure cultures and standard substrates. To reduce these costs, agro-industrial wastes have been started to be used as substrate to
feed mixed microbial cultures (MMC). In Lombardy Region (North Italy) about 3.3 million Mg of cheese whey (data of 2013)
are produced yearly, that is about 36% of total Italian production and the 2.75% of the global production. Cheese whey, being
largely and continuously produced and easily available, could be an interesting substrate for PHAs production to sustain the
high demand of plastics of the market. In this work two fermented cheese whey (FCW) were used to produce PHAs by using
MMC. PHA accumulation given for fermented FCW1 a PHA yield (Ytot) of 0.24±0.02 mg CODPHA mg COD Soluble Substrate(SS)
-1 and
a total PHA production, referred to the substrate used, of 60 g PHA kgcheese whey total solids (TS)-1. For fermented FCW2 results
were: PHA yield (Ytot) of 0.42±0.03 mg CODPHA mg CODSS
-1 and PHA from substrate of 70 g PHA kgcheese whey TS-1 . Qualitatively,
PHA from FCW1 was composed exclusively by polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) contrarily to those obtained from FCW2 that were
composed for 40% of hydroxyvalerate and for 60% of hydroxybutyrate.