Experimental study demonstrates tunable strength and rapid biodegradation in biomass-biopolymer foams, indicating a viable sustainable packaging alternative.
Key Points
To develop and evaluate renewable foam composites made from unrefined biomass waste and biopolymers for sustainable packaging applications.
Fabricated porous composites via a foam-forming process by blending unrefined biomass particles (sugarcane bagasse or eucalyptus waste) and biopolymers (starch or pectin) in water with mechanical agitation, followed by oven drying.
Characterized the resulting materials for pore morphology, foam density, compressive strength, biodegradation rates via respirometry, and structural changes via Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).
Produced low-density foams (0.13–0.19 g·cm⁻³) with compressive strengths of 0.08–0.27 MPa, where sugarcane bagasse generated smaller pore sizes (~800 μm) compared to eucalyptus waste (~1000 μm).
Respirometry revealed faster biodegradation rates in starch-based formulations (0.25 d⁻¹ for sugarcane bagasse and 0.23 d⁻¹ for eucalyptus waste) than pectin-based formulations, with eucalyptus particles contributing to longer degradation lag phases.