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Scientists Turn Cheap Beet Pulp into Value-Added
Plastics Ingredient
By Jan Suszkiw
March 12, 2008 Sugar beet pulp may help cut the costs
of making biodegradable plastic, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) studies suggest.
The pulp is a fiber-rich byproduct of sucrose extraction procedures used by
sugar beet processors. Most of the 40 million tons of U.S. sugar beet pulp
generated each year is used as an inexpensive livestock feed or pet-food
ingredient. But ARS chemists
Victoria
Finkenstadt and
LinShu
Liu aim to breathe new economic life into the pulp.
Finkenstadt is with the ARS National Center for Agricultural Utilization
Research (NCAUR)
in Peoria, Ill. Liu is with the ARS
Eastern
Regional Research Center in Wyndmoor, Pa. Since 2004, they've collaborated
on a project to convert sugar beet pulp into a specialized filler material for
polylactic-acid-based plastics.
Polylactic acid (PLA) is considered a promising natural alternative to
petroleum-based thermoplastics like polypropylene because PLA has comparable
tensile strength and other mechanical properties, but is biodegradable. But PLA
is costlier because of the complex processes required to derive it from
fermented corn sugars, according to Finkenstandt, in NCAUR's
Plant
Polymer Research Unit.
Working with Liu's team at Wyndmoor, Finkenstadt and her Peoria colleagues
showed that glycerol can be used to plasticize the pulp and reshape its
particulate matter into tendrils. Early tests have been promising, but showed
that the PLA's tensile strength decreased in relation to the amount of sugar
beet pulp or plasticizer that was added. To get around the problem, Liu's group
plans on chemically modifying the pulp so that its tendrils and the PLA matrix
form a stronger bond.
Potential uses for pulp-based PLA composites range from nondurable goods
such as water bottles, cups and packaging, to lightweight indoor-construction
materials such as wallboard, tabletops and pressed furniture.
Read
more about the research in the March 2008 issue of Agricultural
Research magazine.
ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.