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BANANA AS A SOURCE OF ALTERNATIVE PLASTICS

What are Plastics?

The word plastic came from the Greek word plasticós which means "to mold." Plastics can flow or be molded and is ductile or it can be shaped. Brightly colored and maddeningly resistant to breakdown by natural processes, plastic products have become a symbol of the nation's litter and solid waste disposal problems. And, since plastics are almost universally derived from petroleum products, they represent a drain on what could become a scarce and increasingly costly resource.

As a result, some chemical companies and research institutes are rushing the development of plastics made from natural sources, such as starch and sugars, rather than oil. Products derived from these materials could ease the pressure on oil supplies if prices soar. And they have the useful property of degrading into benign components quickly and completely after use.

Plastics are synthetic materials, which means that they are artificial, or manufactured. Synthesis means that "something is put together," and synthetic materials are made of building blocks that are put together in factories.

The building blocks for making plastics are small organic molecules - molecules that contain carbon along with other substances. They generally come from oil (petroleum) or natural gas, but they can also come from other organic materials such as wood fibers, corn, or banana peels. Each of these small molecules is known as a monomer ("one part") because it's capable of joining with other monomers to form very long molecule chains called polymers ("many parts") during a chemical reaction called polymerization.

Natural polymers are not new. Indeed, starch, a natural constituent of many foods, is chemically a polymer of the sugar glucose. Just as the synthetic polymer polyethylene consists of hundreds of ethylene molecules linked together, starch is composed of long trains of glucose units.

The Banana Fruit

Banana can be used as food, as feed, and for industrial purposes. Several products can be derived from its plant parts; hence, it is sometimes compared to coconut as the "tree of life".

The fruit is banana's main economic product. It can be eaten fresh, processed or cooked. As food, it can be processed into several delicious products such as puree, jam, jelly, chips, or crisps among others. The most popular preparation, however, is boiled banana. Banana fruit can also be processed into banana cue, catsup, figs, spread, preserve, vinegar, and wine. Most of these products are already produced in commercial scale as evident in the market.

In commercial farms, excess banana, either ripe or unripe, are used to feed swine and cattle. For industrial purposes, the pseudostem is a good source of fiber and handicrafts. Other industrial products which can be obtained from the different parts of a banana plant include ethyl alcohol, flour, dye, floor wax, paste and corkboard.

Researchers have come up with a novel technique for using banana plants to produce plastics. Banana plants contain natural fibers that could be used in the production of rotationally moulded plastics. Banana by - products from plantations in the Canary Islands are being used in this study known as the Badana project. According to Mark Kearns, Rotational Moulding Manager at the Polymer Processing Research Centre in Queen’s School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, the Badana project aims to find a use for these plants. The natural fibres contained within them may be used in the production of rotationally molded plastics, which are used to make everyday items such as, oil tanks, wheelie bins, water tanks, traffic cones, plastic dolls and many types of boats. The banana plant fibres will be processed, treated and added to a mix of plastic material and sandwiched between two thin layers of pure plastic providing excellent structural properties.

Fibers obtained from their pseudostems have been classified, according to the position of the leaves in the pseudostem and to the variety of banana tree; this classification was made in order to determine if significant differences exist in mechanical properties, thermal behaviour, chemical composition or surface morphology due to these two factors. Fibres extracted from banana trees have been characterized by FTIR and TGA analysis, optical and SEM observations and by mechanical tests. The characteristics obtained have been compared to those obtained for sisal fibres. Starting from the manual procedures to extract banana fibres, a range of ideas has been developed to design a prototype to produce banana fibres. Different stages have been followed, with several tests and redesign phases, in order to achieve the actual prototype, named the Multi-Phase Decorticating Machine (MPDM). The first prototype MPDM has already been tested, and is now undergoing modifications; preliminary tests showed that some modifications were needed in order to improve the amount of fibre extracted (and thus, the efficiency of the extraction process), and also the quality of fibre produced. (MPDM) In order to ensure good adhesion between the fibres and the polymers it is compounded with, fibre surface modification trials have been performed using alkaline and acetylation treatments of banana fibres. The tensile properties of these fibres were tested, and the results show that tensile properties of treated fibres are found to be lower than that of the pristine fibre. Batch compounding trials of untreated and treated banana fibre reinforced polypropylene (PP) composites have been carried out using a Gale minimixer and Hampden internal mixer. Maleic anhydride graft polypropylene (MA-g-PP) was employed as a coupling agent. The preliminary tensile property results show that at 20 wt% fibre content the performance of PP / banana fibre composite is comparable to that of PP/sisal fibre composite and tensile strength was improved with the addition of MA-g-PP.

Procedure To Make A Plastic From Banana (A Simple Experiment)

Four bananas were washed and peeled. They were cut into pieces and placed in a blender and blended with 100ml of water for 2 minutes. The mixture was filtered and the residue was placed on wax paper and left to dry.

The semi dry residue was placed in a pan with 100ml of water, 12ml of vinegar and 8ml of glycerine was then added. The mixture was stirred. It was heated at a low temperature and when it began to thicken. 8ml of baking soda solution was added. The mixture was stirred constantly until it thickened; it was then poured into a mould. After seven days of drying the mould was opened and the plastic was removed.

References

Anderson, J., James, E., Mathurin, J., Alexander, M. & Trezell, R. 2012. Biodegradable Banana Plastic A Reliable Alternative. Project Earth. Retrieved February 27, 2013, from http://www.projectearth.net/Project/Details/2706.

Bailey, R. 2009. From Banana Trees To Plastics. About.com Guide. Retrieved February 27, 2013, 	from http://biology.about.com/b/2009/10/10/from-banana-trees-to-plastics.htm

Holusha, J. 1990. Technology; Scientists Are Proving That Natural Plastic Is Not an Oxymoron. The New York Times. Retrieved February 27, 2013, from 	http://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/21/business/technology-scientists-are-	proving-that-natural-	plastic-is-not-an-oxymoron.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm.

Nobelprize.org. 2007. Plastics and Polymers. Retrieved February 27, 2013, from    http://www.nobelprize.org/educational/chemistry/plastics/readmore.html.

Queen's University, Belfast. 2009. Banana Plants May Be Used In Production Of Plastic Products. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 27, 2013, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2009/09/090928095449.htm.

http://bicol.da.gov.ph/Opportunities/banana%20profile/topic2.html

http://cordis.europa.eu/documents/documentlibrary/116284631EN6.pdf