Application of extrusion-cooking technique for foamed starch-based materials

Abstract

Foamed materials are widely used, mainly as a protection objects during transport of various products. Traditionally foams are produced from plastics so they are very difficult for waste management. It is the challenge for many scientific centres to develop a technology for the production of bio-based materials which can be rapidly decomposed. The task for the researcher is to obtain a relatively cheap, easy to use and completely biodegradable materials. The aim of this work was the selection of the main raw materials, functional additives and process parameters to obtain the most effective parameters of extrusion-cooking process for foamed starch-based materials. Properties of the products and processing costs were taken into account. During the study, the extrusion-cooking process was performed under various conditions: temperature, humidity, type of the die, screw rotational speed, various raw materials and additives blends. The best results were obtained for mixtures based on potato starch and with addition the foaming agent Plastron foam PDE and poly(vinyl) alcohol PVA.