Capezza, Antonio José
- Department of Plant Breeding, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)
Abstract
The production of porous wheat gluten (WG) absorbent materials by means of extrusion processing is presented for the future development of sustainable superabsorbent polymers (SAPs). Different temperatures, formulations, and WG compositions were used to determine a useful protocol that provides the best combination of porosity and water swelling properties. The most optimal formulation was based on 50 wt.% WG in water that was processed at 80 degrees C as a mixture, which provided a porous core structure with a denser outer shell. As a green foaming agent, food-grade sodium bicarbonate was added during the processing, which allowed the formation of a more open porous material. This extruded WG material was able to swell 280% in water and, due to the open-cell structure, 28% with non-polar limonene. The results are paving the way towards production of porous bio macromolecular structures with high polar/non-polar liquid uptake, using extrusion as a solvent free and energy efficient production technique without toxic reagents.
Keywords
wheat gluten; protein; extrusion; sustainability; absorbents; porosity; circularity
Published in
Polymers
2020, volume: 12, number: 2, article number: 459
SLU Authors
Newson, William
- Department of Plant Breeding, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Department of Plant Breeding, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Johansson, Eva
- Department of Plant Breeding, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Department of Plant Breeding, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Global goals (SDG)
SDG7 Affordable and clean energy
UKÄ Subject classification
Other Chemical Engineering
Other Materials Engineering
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12020459
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/104467