3 Things You Need to Know About Bioproducts
Hello, everyone. Today, my topic is “3 things you need to know about bioproducts.” With the increasing demand of users and the strengthening of people’s awareness of environmental protection, more and more biological products are coming into our lives. At the same time, the scope of biological field is also expanding. Therefore, as consumers, it is necessary for us to recognize biological products.
Most of the plastics we use every day come from fossil fuels. And every kind of plastic has its unique chemical properties, so we usually classify it in turn by the plastic polymer backbone. Most plastics for packaging purposes are polyethylene, which is also the most widely used plastic in the market, accounting for 34% of the plastic market. With the increasing demand for plastics, the use of plastics and the toxicity of specific chemicals are leading to further deterioration of the environment. Since 1950, mankind has produced about 6.3 billion tons of plastic waste and it is expected that the production of plastic waste will far exceed this figure in the next few years.
Therefore, in order to alleviate the environmental crisis caused by plastics, human beings have carried out research on bioplastics. Bioplastics are usually classified as non-biodegradable and biodegradable, and the main difference between them is whether they can be degraded by natural microorganisms. Non-degradable bioplastics only mean that they come from plant materials and are not biodegradable. At present, some types of fossil-based plastics and plant-based plastics can be biodegraded (such as PLA and PHA). Theoretically speaking, PLA and PHA can be recycled. However, they will lose some physical properties after several rounds of cycling. Biodegradable plastics are generally divided into compostable and non-compostable. Compostable must meet three conditions: 1. Biodegradation 2. Disintegration 3. Eco-toxicity (Lesson 20).
Next, we will discuss other uses of biological products. First, we need to know how vegetable oil is transformed. Generally, the oil-bearing biomass crops we know well are rapeseed, soybean and sunflower or some other sources such as animal manure and sewage. For traditional oil crops, we usually extract oil from their seeds. If the oil content of seeds exceeds 20%, mechanical pressure is used to extract oil. For some algae with low oil concentration, we must dry them first, and then press them mechanically or extract them with solvent. After extracting the oil, we usually carry out transesterification. Triglyceride is another kind of lipid that can be directly used as diesel engine. Therefore, people usually trans esterify it to change its fuel performance. In the process of transesterification, it will produce methyl ester with some catalysts, which is similar to diesel fuel. We can also obtain renewable diesel oil by hydrotreating triglycerides and other lipids (Lesson 21).
In addition, fungi can also be made into many biological products. We usually think that fungi are mushrooms. But mushroom is only a fruiting body of fungi, which is a part of the total amount of fungi. However, if we use the correct fungal species and their favorite substrates, fungal hyphae can be interwoven into tight packaging materials with functional characteristics. In addition to its compactness, it also has the characteristics of water resistance, fire resistance, heat resistance and low density. Therefore, more and more companies make furniture, leather and clothing products by edible fungi and fungal mycelia. Through further understanding of Paradise Packaging Co, we can see the packaging process of fungi very intuitively. First of all, their designers will work with you to customize mycelium packaging for your design products. Then, after receiving the growth tray you designed, they will fill it with marijuana and mycelium. Finally, after 7 days, they took the grown package out of the tray and dehydrated it. Moreover, their packaged products can be degraded by soil microorganisms without composting facilities, and you only need to integrate them into the soil to fully compost them within 30 days. Next I will show you the products of Paradise Packaging Company (Lesson 22).
In a word, compared with the products extracted from traditional fossil fuels, the appearance of biological products slows down the further deterioration of the environment. We should devote more energy to the research and development of biological products to prevent the increasingly serious environmental crisis.
Work Cited
Lesson 20, Bioplastics, BBE 1002, UMN
Lesson 21, Other Pathways to Products, BBE 1002, UMN
Lesson 22, Other Biobased Products, BBE 1002, UMN
Title: Compostable Custom Molded Mycelium
