EXTRACTION OF STARCH FROM

BANANA (Musa Sapientum) PEEL TO

PRODUCE BIOPLASTIC

SUBMITTED BY:

BSChE 3-1 Group 4

Manzano, Mikaela Gail

Santos, Princess Gabrielle C.

Valdez, Loisroi R.

Yepes, Anna Lyn G.

SUBMITTED TO:

Engr. Milagros Cabangon

Instructor

December 2016
 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
I. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

From cars to food wrap, you can make anything and everything from plastics—
unquestionably the world's most versatile materials. But there's a snag. Plastics
are synthetic (artificially created) chemicals that don't belong in our world and
don't mix well with nature. Public pressure to clean up has produced plastics
that seem to be more environmentally friendly.

Bioplastics are plastics derived from renewable biomass sources, such as

vegetable fats and oils, corn starch, or microbiota. Bioplastic can be made from
agricultural by-products and from used plastic bottles and other containers
using microorganisms. Bioplastics can be composed of starches, cellulose,
biopolymers, and a variety of other materials.

The demand to produce environment friendly material is increasing. The rising

concern towards environmental problems brought by petroleum-based products
inspired the development of the eco-friendly materials. Bioplastics are derived
from agricultural resources and biomass feedstock that are renewable and
therefore comply with materials that are eco-efficient and sustainable. Among
the biopolymer matrices being utilized to produce bioplastics, starch is
considered the most widely used material.

Starch-based plastics have been projected to comprise the largest production

capacity amounting to 1.3 Mt in 2020 while the remaining production is based
on polylactic acid (PLA), polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), bio-based polyethylene,
and others. The large contribution of starch-based plastics in the market can be
accounted for its several cited advantages such as high abundance, low cost,
and renewability. However, starch alone is not a true thermoplastic. It must be
processed in the presence of heat and mechanical treatment together with a
plasticizer. This process produces thermoplastic starch (TPS). It must be
combined with other materials often a filler to modify its properties. Generally,
reinforcement with filler enhances the mechanical properties of starch and
reduces the hydrophilic character.

In bioplastic production, 50% are starch based and the remaining are cellulose
and protein based. Starch based bioplastic can use corn kernels, sugar cane,
newspaper, plant scraps and banana peels as sources of starch.
The Philippines is the second largest exporter of bananas after Ecuador, with
some 2.6 m tonnes exported in 2012. That year, the exports from the Philippines
(essentially Cavendish cultivars) made up 98% of the Asian banana trade. Two
thirds of the exported volumes were shipped to Japan, China and South Korea.

In 2015, the country produced nearly 9.1m tonnes of bananas on 443,270 ha,
with Cavendish cultivars accounting for about 50% of national banana
production, Saba (29%) and Lakatan (11%). Latundan (a Silk cultivar) and other
cultivars accounted for about 11%. At the beginning of the century, as many as
90 cultivars were estimated to be grown for local consumption.

The common banana, scientifically known as Musa sapientum, is a tropical fruit

grown in the western hemisphere. Primarily viewed as a food source, the banana
has fleshy inside portion surrounded by an outer, typically yellow, peel. The
fleshy inside portion, or pulp, is edible when raw, and the peel is usually
discarded. When ripe, bananas have a deep yellow rind spotted with brown, and
a creamy pulp which is easily digested.

Among those, banana peels are waste and is the best option in choosing of raw
material. Also, banana production increased by 2.8% in 2014 to 8.88 million
metric tons (MT), per Bureau of Agricultural Statistics’ (BAS) which make it an
abundant source in the country. These are found to have minimum 15% starch
when immature and 30-40% when ripe.

II. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

In 2014, global plastic production reached 311 million metric tons, with 59
million metric tons in Europe alone. (Global Statistics, 2014) The production
process used to make plastics consumes about 10% of oil and gasoline both
produced and imported by the U.S. Globally, the production of plastic accounts
for 270 million tons of oil and gasoline in order to meet the demand for plastic
products. (Algix.com) When a plastic’s usefulness is over, it is readily dumped
into landfills and ocean environments. This gives a high impact on environmental
and economic problem. Bioplastics which are biodegradable and can be made
from scratch have a potential solution to the problem, environmentally and
economically. Also, banana peels which is the main raw material, are considered
agricultural waste that can be turned into some useful product such as
bioplastic.

During recent decades, there has been a continuous increase in the use of
plastics and it has become the major new material replacing some traditional
ones such as paper, steel and aluminum in many applications. The main
advantages of plastics are their low cost and lightweight. In addition, they are
easy to formulate and require low energy for their transportation and production.
The ever-growing production and use of plastics have led to a waste disposal
problem because, generally, they are inherently inert to the microorganisms or
the chemicals in an environment (Prinos, et al. 1998). Thus, they cannot degrade
when exposed to the environment. Conventional garbage disposal methods such
as incineration, landfill and recycling are not so attractive due to their respective
limitations. Incineration needs high temperatures of more than 800o C, which
makes it rarely used nowadays. Landfill has some problems of odor and the
scattering of lightweight waste materials by the wind. Recycling has not yet
gained widespread acceptance because of its difficulty in classifying and
separating the types of used plastics. For these reasons, there has been an
increased interest in the production and use of fully biodegradable polymers
replacing nonbiodegradable plastics

Plastics made from petroleum-based have many drawbacks. It needs a large

amount of energy in the production process, besides it took years to degrade and
at the same time caused serious hazards to the environment. To shift to
sustainable pathways, the development of biodegradable products has increased
years ago, and it continues to be the area that attracts scientists to involve with
new green materials and improvement ideas. Renewable natural polymer
resources such as starches were one of the most attractive materials because of
its’ inherent biodegradability, ready availability and low cost (Azahari et al.,
2011; Patel et al., 2011; Tang et al., 2007). Biodegradation of bioplastic can be
characterized with the loss of weight, change in tensile strength, change in
dimensions, change in chemical and physical properties, carbon dioxide
production, bacterial activity in soil and change in molecular weight distribution
(Singh & Sharma, 2008). Nowadays, starch is widely used in the fields of food
technology, engineering, pharmaceutical, packaging and agriculture

III. OBJECTIVES

GENERAL: The main objective of the experiment is to extract the starch from
the banana peels to produce a bioplastic sheet that conforms with the
standard properties.

PROPERTY STANDARD
Water absorption 22.70%
Tensile Strength 9.26 MPa
Melting Point 120 deg Celsius
Source: Green Polymer Composites Technology Properties and Applications
 SPECIFIC:

 To determine the amount of starch that can produce a bioplastic that

can conform with the standard property.
 To identify the suitable parameters that will produce the highest
amount of starch from banana peels through varying the different
parameters such as type of reagents, concentration of reagents, mass
ratio of reagents, temperature and time.
 To determine the amount of water to be used in washing banana peel
 To determine the amount of water needed to extract the most amount
of starch from banana peel
 To determine the minimum amount of time needed to settle the
maximum amount of starch from the banana starch suspension
 To determine the optimum time for drying the banana starch
 To calculate for the percent yield of each process involved.

IV. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

With this research, the conventional petroleum-based commercial plastics will

soon be replaced by these bioplastics made from banana starch. An advantage
of this is that, they will not fill up the landfills because they are biodegradable
and just for months, disposed bioplastics are completely gone unlike petroleum-
based plastics which takes about many centuries. This research will also be
significant to the whole scientific community since it would provide added
information about how to make a good, environment-friendly, inexpensive and
toxic-free bioplastic from banana wastes. This research can also serve as a
springboard for future researches who want to develop safe and cost effective
bioplastics. This study entitled “Extraction of Starch from Banana Peels to
Produce Bioplastic” is expected to be significant to the following fields:

To the banana chips, banana ketchup factory owners

The study utilizes banana peels as its major raw material for the production of
bioplastic. This will provide the factory owners a potential market for bioplastic
rather than ending up the banana peelings as waste.

To the plastic industry

This study promotes an environment-friendly plastic as it will provide a product

that will degrade faster than the conventional plastic. Also, it promotes the
establishment of local production that will potentially be largely available in the
market.

To the business field

Both the materials and procedure of this study could be utilized and developed
by other institutions and could be a reason for a local production of bioplastic
from the raw material. Moreover, this study would help create jobs for local
citizens.

To the Students

The concepts used and the manufacturing process, as well as the literature
gathered in this experiment could be used as reference for further studies related
to the development of banana starch based bioplastic. Students could also use
the process described in the experiment to observe the conversion of banana peel
to a bioplastic in a simplified laboratory set-up.

To the chemical engineering profession

This study may serve as an additional reference for related and similar studies
of fellow researchers. Chemical engineers could help in conducting further
research and study of the process involved in the production of bioplastic. With
the help of this field, scientific and economic condition in the country could be
improved.

V. SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS

This study focuses on the production of bioplastic through extraction of starch

from banana fruit peelings. The main idea of the study was to determine its
efficacy and to identify the parameters which can yield optimum values. This
study will only focus on the production of bioplastic using starch from Banana
peels. This includes the collecting of banana peels, extraction, production of the
bioplastic, testing the properties, gathering and analysis of data and finally,
arriving at the conclusions. It will take a week to finish the production of
bioplastics since there are parts where drying is needed.

The experimentation was done only up to laboratory scale. The materials

used in this study are locally available. Banana Peels, the major raw material
used in the study, can be collected in Dolly’s Banana Chips factory in Cavite.
These banana peels are the by-product of the production of banana chips.
 In the determination of suitable parameters, a number of trials were based
on the existing experimental procedures of various related studies. The
experimental variations involved in this study are the following:

 Temperature
 Time
 Type of solvent
 Ratio of a material to reagent
 Concentration of reagents
 Type of catalyst
 Molar ratio

CHAPTER II
A. Review of Related Literature
a. Raw Material
Musa sapientum which is commonly called banana is a herbaceous
plant of the family Musaceae. It is known to have originated from
the tropical region of Southern Asia. According to Leslie, it is now
cultivated throughout the tropics. Akinyosoye reported that the
plant is cultivated primarily for its fruits and to a lesser extent for
the production of fibre. It is also believed to be an ornamental plant.
The Musa sapientum grows up to a height of about 2-8m with leaves
of about 3.5m in length. The stem which is also called pseudostem
produces a single bunch of banana before dying and replaced by
new pseudostem. The fruit grows in hanging cluster, with twenty
fruits to a tier and 3 – 20 tiers to a bunch. The fruit is protected by
its peel which is discarded as waste after the inner fleshy portion is
eaten.

Banana production increased by 2.8% in 2014 to 8.88 million metric

tons (MT), according to the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics’ (BAS)
Major Crops Bulletin, but this year’s output could suffer a setback
as the prevailing mild El Niño has started to affect harvest.

The average banana fruit has 32-35% skin. Banana peels generally
contain 6 to 9 percent protein, 20 to 30 percent fiber and other
components such as starch, sugars, lignin, tannins and minerals in
varying amounts. The exact quantity of these components depends
on the banana cultivar and its maturity. Green banana peels contain
much less starch (about 15%) while ripe banana peels contain up to
30% free sugars.

The relationship between peel color and starch index, according to

our chart, shows a reasonable positive linear correlation

The relationship between pH changes and starch index is not linear,

and best fits an exponential curve (Fig. 4). During normal banana
ripening, the starch-iodine staining technique for assessing pulp
ripe ness correlates well with color and soluble solids. Use of the
technique to evaluate pulp maturity should be of value to both
researchers and workers in the banana industry in evaluations
when internal ripeness is more important than appearance, when
color is not a usable index, or when temperature and humidity
problems arise and external and internal ripening are not well-
correlated
b. Process
According to The Packaging Bulletin Magazine’s January issue, it is
a proven fact that starch and cellulose are important raw materials
used in the bioplastic industry (Packaging Bulletin, 2009). Since
they are rich with starch and this starch is very easy to extract,
potatoes are the most commonly used raw materials. In RSC’s
“Making plastic from potato starch” experiment, a simple way of
making plastic from potato starch is introduced and the chemical
basis of the process is explored in depth. The propane-1,2,3-triol
used in the experiment functions as a plasticizer, an additive used
to develop or improve the plasticity of a material. It disconnects the
polymer chains from one another; restraining them from becoming
rows of chains and acquiring a crystalline structure. The formation
of the crystalline structure is undesired because it is a brittle and
fragile structure which makes the plastic brittle and fragile as well.
Instead of the crystalline structure, the formation of film (not
becoming rows of chains of polymers) is desired.

Starch consists of two different types of polymer chains, called

amylose and amylopectin, made up of adjoined glucose molecules.
The hydrochloric acid is used in the hydrolysis of amylopectin,
which is needed in order to aid the process of film formation due to
the H-bonding amongst the chains of glucose in starch, since
amylopectin restricts the film formation. The sodium hydroxide used
 in the experiment is simply used in order to neutralize the pH of the
medium.

The 9th and 10th pilot experiment conducted had been successful
in producing plastic, but had started to decay after only 3 days. As
a result of the research done to address this issue, I found out that
in order to improve shelf life of post-harvest wild mango fruits,
sodium metabisulphite can be used (Ibadan, 1991). This is why the
sodium metabisulphite solution was used in this experiment.
B. Review of Related Studies

CHAPTER III
A. Experimental Study

The following are the raw materials needed for the production of
bioplastic from banana peels:

Raw Material Function

Banana Peel Source of Starch
NaOH pH Adjuster
propan-1,2,3-triol Plasticizer
𝑁𝑎2 𝑆2 𝑂5 Preservative
HCl Catalyst in hydrolysis

Procedure:

I. Preparation of Raw Materials

 Measuring of Raw Materials

In preparation for the production of bioplastic the following reagents
are measured: (1) 0.5 kilogram of banana peel; (2) 200 ml 0.5%
𝑁𝑎2 𝑆2 𝑂5; (3) 3 ml HCl (4) 2 ml of propan-1,2,3-triol, (5) 3 ml NaOH
 Preparation of Banana Peels
1. The banana skin is removed using stainless steel knife.
2. The skin is washed in a running water to remove dirt and
impurities.
II. Extraction of Starch
1. A 800-ml beaker was filled with distilled water and placed over
a Bunsen burner.
 2. The banana peels are dipped in 0.5% 𝑁𝑎2 𝑆2 𝑂5 solution and
placed in a beaker and boiled for 30 minutes.
3. After the boiling process, the beaker was removed from the
Bunsen burner and the peels were decanted off the water and
placed on and covered with a dry gauze pad, left to dry for 30
minutes.
4. After the peels were dried, they were placed in a clean 800 ml
beaker.
5. Using a hand blender, the peels were pureed until a fluid paste
was formed.
III. Forming of Plastic
1. 25 ml of banana paste was placed in each 50 ml beaker.
2. 3 ml of HCl was added and stirred using a glass stirring rod.
3. 2 ml of propan-1,2,3-triol was added to each beaker. The mixture
was stirred once more.
4. 3 ml NaOH is added and stirred using a glass rod.
5. The mixture was poured into a petri dish and put in the oven at
130 degrees Celsius. It was baked for half an hour.