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Use of heat treatment for the development of protein-based bioplastics

2020; Elsevier BV; Volume: 18; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.scp.2020.100341

2352-5541

Mercedes Jiménez‐Rosado, José Fernando Rubio‐Valle, Víctor Manuel Pérez Puyana, Antonio Guerrero, Alberto Romero,

Microplastics and Plastic Pollution

The production of bioplastics from renewable and biodegradable sources could be a great potential option for the substitution of conventional plastics. In this way, raw materials and processing method have been investigated to improve their competitiveness in the actual market. However, the extra treatment that bioplastics must undergo to improve their properties are expensive, making them unfeasible. In this sense, a heat treatment in a conventional oven seems to be a potential low-cost option. This work aimed to evaluate the incorporation of a heat treatment at 50 °C in the process of protein-based bioplastic. For this, two proteins with different applications, absorption in hygiene (soy protein isolate) and food packaging (pea protein isolate), were selected to evaluate the versatility of this tentative post-treatment. In addition, two different mold temperatures (70 and 130 °C) and different exposure times of heat treatment (0, 4 and 24 h) were studied to evaluate the effect of them in the bioplastics properties and to select the most optimal processing method for each protein. In this context, mechanical properties and water uptake capacity were evaluated to study the influence of this post-treatment on them. The results showed that the processing conditions and the heat post-treatment could modulate the final properties of protein-based bioplastics, being potential materials to replace conventional plastics.