Protein Power: Plastics From the Prairie  

Biomass magazine has an article on various research efforts underway in the American midwest into novel types of bioplastics - Plastics From the Prairie.

Another bioplastic project is also taking shape at NDSU. Rather than converting oil into epoxy, Scott Pryor, an assistant professor in agricultural and biosystems engineering at NDSU, is using the canola meal left over after oil extraction and converting that into a biodegradable bioplastic. “It’s been done quite a bit with soy proteins,” Pryor says. “We have been using soy for many decades to make adhesives, polymers and composites. We’re interested in seeing how proteins from other sources might function in these applications. Hopefully, different proteins might lend themselves to improved properties for certain applications.”

He became interested in using canola meal because canola oil is used as a feedstock for biodiesel production in North Dakota. He was approached by a biodiesel producer about other value-added opportunities for canola meal, which is currently sold as animal feed. A surprising number of polymers can be made out of proteins. Pryor listed panels for automobiles or farm equipment as just one example of a potential product.

A mixture of different proteins, called an isolate, can be extracted from oilseed meal. Pryor started by taking canola meal isolate and separating it into its component proteins and examining their properties. One property that is important is water absorbtion. “One problem with protein-based polymers is that they can absorb too much water,” he says. “We see that if we can extract the portions of the protein that have higher water solubility, we can decrease the solubility of the final mix of proteins.” Proteins can also be modified with heat, enzymes or chemicals to modify their properties.

Pryor’s work is also in its beginning stages so he isn’t sure for which applications canola-based bioplastics will be best suited. “We didn’t go into this research with a specific application in mind,” he says. “We saw that there was a hole in the research in that we didn’t know what functionality these canola proteins would give for industrial products. We want to explore the possibilities of canola proteins.” Pryor will be looking at using the proteins to make composites, but will be keeping an eye open for other applications such as adhesives.