Development of packaging material using pine needles and its characterization
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Date
2019-07
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G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand)
Abstract
Total pine needles availability is about 2.7×106 MT per annum in India and in Uttarkhand total pine forests produced about 2.05×106 MT per annum. Major source of ground fires and therefore damaging consequences on environment and flora and fauna. In the summer season when surrounding temperature is high, needles catch fire due to presence of lignin in pine needles. The Forest Department of India, Dehradun have reported that a massive forest fire in 2017 engulfed 14.7 thousand acres of valuable forest area through 2,272 forest fire incidents in Uttrakhand. These fires destroy the local ecology, damaging the fertile top layer of the soil and destroyed grazing grounds for cattle. Therefore, pine needles dried biomass have been converted into packaging material with the intervention of processing techniques, in order to protect eco-logical imbalance caused. Therefore, the present investigation has been undertaken to development of technology for biodegradable packaging material from pine needles. Particle size of pine needles powder was selected (0.5mm) on the basis of preliminary experiments and review of literature. The independent variables selected for the study were, pine needles and filler materials ratio (1:1,1.75:1,2.50:1,3.25 and 4:1 w/w), glycerol (0,3,6,9 and 12% v/v) and starch (0,5,10,15 and 20% w/v). The effect of these independent variables were observed on responses such as TS (MPa), elongation (%), water solubility (%), moisture absorbance (%), water vapor permeability (g/Pa h m) and density (g/cm3). The experiment was carried in three ways by considering different filler materials that is waste newspaper, waste cardboard and potato peel. The three set of experiments were planned using central composite rotatable design (CCRD) and optimized separately using the different combination of independent parameters. The optimum level of variables for maximum desirability of developed biodegradable packaging material were from pine needles and waste cardboard ratio (3.25:1 w/w), glycerol concentration (3.814% v/v) and starch (7.719% w/v). The optimum values of response were; tensile strength (1.794 MPa), elongation (5.932%), water solubility (26.71%), water vapor permeability (4.312 g/Pa m h), moisture absorbance(7.753%) and density (1.132 g/cm3). Significant (p<0.05) effect of process parameters were found in all responses in developed biodegradable packaging material from pine needles and waste cardboard. On validation of the model for responses of developed biodegradable packaging material, it was found that the developed model was accurate as the prediction error was only in the range of -1.890 to 11.38%. Biodegradability test was conducted of the developed packaging material from pine needles and waste cardboard ratio showed weight loss in 21 days of degradable period when sample was buried under soil.
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