Melt compounding of agri-food wastes biomass

Problem statement

Global needs of researching and developing bioplastics from agri-wastes.

Executive summary

This technology produces bioplastics and biodegradable plastics to valorise agricultural wastes.

Technology description

The proposed solution is a series of physical process, starting with drying and grinding the agricultural wastes. Then adding them to an extruder with thermoplastic polymers (it can be a biodegradable thermoplastic polymers). Then, inside the compounding line, where the input is mixed, temperature increases, and the heated mixture comes out of the machine as a combined biopolymer or bioplastic.

Market deployment considerations

This technology is modulable, the main machine is an extruder, that melts and binds different compounds. It favours to use local agri-wastes and use them for bioplastics making. To reach the amount of biomass needed to be feed to the machine (extruder).

Environmental considerations

Biopolymers can be composted if they are bio-compostable, although their market price is higher than the non-compostable ones.