Reaproveitamento de fibra residual da agroindústria da laranja para filmes biodegradáveis de PBAT

Abstract

Brazil is one of the largest producers of orange juice in the world, and during its production about 50% by weight of the fruit is discarded as by-products. Currently, the main by-product of citrus juice extraction is animal feed. In this process, the drying of the orange bagasse provokes an inevitable burning of membranes, which cause the release of a large quantity of ashes to the atmosphere, generating environmental problems. Aiming for a solution to this problem, this work proposes the reuse of these by-products for the development of plastic films from poly (butylene adipate co-terephthalate) (PBAT), a biodegradable copolymer produced by extrusion. Mass loss biodegradation analyzes of three different formulations were performed and at 35 and 60 day times, the best results with about 34% lost mass were PBAT formulations with 20% fiber and PBAT-TPF (20 %), proving to be a plausible solution as an alternative to the process.