STTR Phase II: Designing and Engineering Thermoplastic Starch BioFoam Materials for Protective Packaging Applications

这个小型企业技术转让（STTR）二期项目的目标是设计和制造用于保护垫包装和隔热（冷却器）市场的可生物降解淀粉生物泡沫材料。这些新型生物基泡沫材料有望取代目前在这些应用中使用的石油/化石基材料。先前的可行性论证：(a)确定了具有良好的抗湿性、强度、回弹性和表面均匀性的变性淀粉生物泡沫的可制造性；(b)通过主要工业用户验证了这些生物泡沫材料在保护垫包装和隔热（冷却器）市场领域的适用性。二期项目将在这些成功的基础上，开发强大的、具有成本效益的制造和优化配方，以更广泛、更深入地渗透26亿美元的泡沫包装市场。这项研究中隐含的技术进步有望大大加速基于生物/可再生原料的更广泛生物塑料产品的开发，以实现成功的商业部署。该项目的更广泛/商业影响是，它解决了公司和国家面临的日益增长的压力，以减少碳足迹，并提供对环境负责和有效的报废选择。美国政府的生物参考项目将生物基、可生物降解泡沫确定为联邦采购的目标项目之一，生物基含量至少为50%。目前，基于石油/化石原料的泡沫塑料包装出现了一个主要的处理问题，因为它重量轻，体积大，因此不适合可行的经济和环保的回收操作。它也不能生物降解，这使得在土壤中处理或堆肥操作是站不住脚的。如果成功，该项目将提供一个可持续的、材料碳足迹中性的替代方案。新的淀粉泡沫产品将具有当前合成塑料泡沫的性能，但可以在土壤或堆肥操作中安全，完全和有效地生物降解。这些新产品将满足私营部门的市场需求和联邦政府的倡议。

This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II project targets the design and engineering of biodegradable starch biofoam materials for protective cushion packaging and thermal insulation (coolers) market. These new biobased foam materials are expected to displace petro/fossil-based materials used currently in these applications. Previous feasibility demonstration has: (a) established the manufacturability of modified starch biofoams with good moisture resistance, strength, resilience and surface uniformity; and (b) validated the applicability of these biofoam materials in the protective cushion packaging and thermal insulation (coolers) market sectors by major industrial users. The Phase II project will build on these successes and develop robust and cost-effective manufacturing and optimized formulations for broader and greater penetration of the $2.6 billion foam packaging market. The technical advancements implied in this research are expected to significantly accelerate the development of a broader range of bio-plastic products based on bio/renewable feedstocks for successful commercial deployment.The broader/commercial impact of this project is that it addresses the growing pressures on companies and countries to reduce their carbon footprint, and provide for environmentally responsible and efficacious end-of-life options. The U.S. Government's BioPreferred program identifies biobased, biodegradable foams with minimum 50% biobased content as one of the targeted items for federal procurement. Current foam plastic packaging, based on petro/fossil feedstocks, presents a major disposal problem, as it is lightweight and bulky and so does not lend itself to a viable economic and environmentally responsible recycling operation. It is also not biodegradable, which makes disposal in soil or composting operations untenable. If successful, this project will offer a sustainable, material carbon footprint neutral alternative. The new starch foam products will have the performance of current synthetic plastic foam but can be safely, completely, and efficiently biodegraded in soil or composting operations. These new products will fit both private sector market needs and federal government initiatives.