TALK ABOUT MAKING A SILK PURSE out of a sow's ear: Japanese researchers are using coffee grounds to give strength and elasticity to biodegradable polyurethane foams and composites. Another Japanese team uses just about any kind of biomass waste to make thermally moldable bioplastics and thermoset resins. And U.S. scientists are incorporating cellulose-based polymers in automotive paint to give vehicles a fast-drying, mirrorlike finish. These are just some of the natural product applications described in Honolulu last month in a series of agrochemistry papers on lignin, cellulose, and biomass presented at the 2000 International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies (Pacifichem). Such natural feedstocks can serve as an outlet for waste materials, provide an alternative to petroleum-based constituents, and confer biodegradability on finished products. The Japanese research team "chose coffee grounds and molasses as raw materials because of their compatibility with the environment and their large production amounts," according to team leader Hyoe Hatakeyama, a ...
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SOPHIE WILKINSON (2001) studied this question.