Bioplastics
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Introduction
Bioplastics are the perfect addition to an integrated farm and forestry operation. An effective open-source method of producing bioplastics will allow communities to be self-sufficient in the raw materials for many modern comforts. Bioplastics promise to replace the many useful products we currently extract from oil.
Combined with plastic extrusion and molding machines such as RepRap, bioplastics enable a local manufacturing process that starts with food waste or soil and creates computer and phone casings, car and machine parts, toys and tools, screws and sculptures.
Bioplastics of interest
Cellophane is reformulated cellulose (wood), produced via an acid and base dunk of sawdust. This may be used in glazing. Car bodies may be made; the original car bodies for Ford were soybean-derived bioplastics.
Polylactic acid can be made by fermenting starch.
Polyethelene can be fabricated from ethylene (which can be relatively easily produced from ethanol).
Mycelium can be placed in a mold with grain husks, wheat straw or any of a wide variety of other biomass (with different end product results) and be made into a variety of useful products, including a durable closed cell foam substitute. See: [1], [2] [3](these refer to the same product and company). Work need to be done open-sourcing this process - what mycelium are used? Where can we get spores? What can we make? We may be able to obtain some and identify it under a microscope (wary of not infringing patents of course; maybe a similar but lower performing mycelium that is not patented could suit our purposes for building insulation etc.)
Where to get
- people of ultimachine.com made their way to natureworks LLC to get PLA (Polylactide), called ingeo (tm)
- makemendel.com offers PLA parts for Mendel since december 2011
- Shenzhen Esun Industrial Co. Ltd. (formerly Shenzhen Brightchina) produces PLA and PCL
- eastern bioplastics, biodegradable plastics from poultry feathers
- FKuR Kunststoff GmbH
- Freitec Kunststoffe GmbH
More readings
Proposed OSE agroecological approach to bioplastic production
This page is meant to organize the information being collected on bioplastic production and proposed project plans. Detailed background and status briefs of individual projects should be maintained on their own page. Information on the advantages and disadvantages of an "anabolic", organic, bioplastic production process and details of the rational design of the overall process should be maintained on this page. Many materials specified in this proposal could be replaced such as sorghum is just an example of a starting feedstock. Alternative routes are encouraged and should be given their own page and linked to this page.
Bioplastics come in a variety of forms and will most likely be an important material in the post-scarcity economy. Bioplastics are polymers from a biological source including polyesters, olefins, and other organic chains that can be extruded into a variety of shapes. Plastics have been in production for hundreds of years from both organic sources and petroleum sources. An agroecological approach will utilize local feedstocks to produce refined subunits for polymerization and use life cycle analysis and appropriate technology to maximize efficiency on a small scale. An agroecological approach will build up polymers as opposed to petroleum based methods that start by breaking down materials. By starting with high purity substrates purification machinery can be minimized and hardware greatly reduced in size. The agroecological route extracts multiple rounds of material from the feedstock which acts to concentrate the remaining products. Final waste of unusuable biomass can still be combusted for thermal energy or broken down by mycelium.
Systems Engineering Breakdown Diagram
Above is a preliminary Systems Engineering Breakdown Diagram of the bioplastic production process. This can serve as a starting point for analysis of the bioplastics full product ecology.
Plastics of interest
Polyethylene
Polylactic acid
Polycellulose
Moldable Mycelium
Feedstocks
Preferred bioplastic feedstocks are plants high in sugar content that is accessible to fermenting microorganisms.
Sorghum
Sorghum is a feedstock of interest for bioplastic production due to its high productivity in producing sugars that can be fermented to either ethanol or lactic acid. The remaining bagasse contains cellulose which can be extracted after acid steam pretreatment as cellulose acetate. The remaining biomass can be burned for thermal energy or composted. Sorghum is a fairly resilient crop and can be planted on less desirable land.
Corn
Corn is the major feedstock for lactic acid and a large source of ethanol. It has a high but not the highest sugar content.
Woody biomass/sawdust
Woody biomass is the starting material for polycelluloses. Unlocking the secret to breaking down cellulose to glucose will yield a major source of high energy sugars.
Monomeric subunits and microorganismal sources
Microorganisms play a key role in converting initial feedstock material's high energy carbon into lower energy structures with functional groups that can be used for polymerization chemistry (forming chemical bonds).
Ethanol
Ethanol is the alcohol fermentation product of yeast and bacteria. Bioplastic conversion takes place in two steps; first ethanol is dehydrated to double bonded ethylene using a lewis acid and metal doping, preferably AlO3 and titanium TiOH. Ethylene molecules can be linked together with polymerization catalysts, of which the Ziegler-Netta catalysts seem preferable.
Lactic acid
Lactic acid is the product of Lactic Acid Bacteria. Polymerization is a dehydration reaction near thermodynamic equilibrium and can take place in a vacuum or over a tin or nickel catalyst.
Cellulose
Cellulose is made of difficult to separate B,1-4 glycosidic linked glucose and paired with other complex polymers including hemicellulose and lignin. Separating cellulose can be done with steam acid treatment, enzymes, or catalytic microorganisms such as Trichoderma reesei.
Acetic acid
The acetate ion is an important comonomer in polymer chemistry and would allow the production of polyethylene vinyl acetate and cellulose acetate from a local feedstock. Acetic acid is a fermentation product of the anaerobic bacteria Clostridium or Acetobacterium.
Hardware
The GVCS contains the tools necessary to produce a feedstock crop. Hardware necessary for the production of refined monomers and conducting chemical reactions are proposed for inclusion in GVCS III and include a fermentor and fluid bed reactor (FBR).
Fermentor
Fluid Bed Reactor (FBR)
Technology demonstrations
The overarching goal of bioplastic proposal is to create materials that fulfill needs of the GVCS product ecologies with maximum efficiency. Demonstrating technology is necessary to test the product and see if the material is up to standards. Demonstrations give a definitive goal for the project to work for and doable goals that expand the product ecologies should be chosen.
1. Polylactic acid capable of being thermomolded with the plastic extruder and 3D printer.
2. Polyethylene capable of being thermomolded with the plastic extruder and 3D printer.
3. Polyethylene vinyl acetate for greenhouse glazings.