Cellulose biofilms as a high-performance alternative in food packaging, from barrier properties to biodegradability

Abstract

Nowadays, there is a growing awareness of the problem of pollution, especially with regard to the generation of plastics, a sector widely in demand due to its versatility in various applications. The polymers commonly used in the food packaging industry represent a significant problem, since they come from a non-renewable source such as petroleum and are not biodegradable. This Final Degree Project is a bibliographic study about the bioplastics derived from cellulose, highlighting two key advantages: their origin from biomass and their biodegradability, which makes them a highly relevant resource for the future. The study focuses mainly on cellulose bioplastics due to their availability, the low cost of the raw material and their wide range of applications, derived from their properties. In addition, they present compatibility with different compounds that allow modifying these properties. However, one of the main drawbacks of these materials is their production cost compared to non-biodegradable plastics. In the field of food packaging, the most commonly used cellulose biofilms that will be analyzed are cellulose acetate and cellulose propionate. The production methods, characterization and properties of these materials derived of cellulose acetate and cellulose acetate propionate will be studied. In addition, the comparison between different catalysts used in the production will be analyzed, observing the current trend to use heterogeneus catalysts, in concret acidic ion exchange resins due to their lower environmental impact. Finally, a comparison of the usual production of conventional plastics will be made, evaluating how the innovation and development sector is working in the search for competitive and sustainable solutions to this problem