Physical Characteristics of Biodegradable Foam from Mixed Hominy Feed and Cassava Starch

Abstract

Biodegradable foam is a packaging materials made from renewable resources which is very prospective to substitute synthetic polystyrene foam. Starch is now dominantly use as a promising material to produce biodegradable foam due to its superior characteristic and availability. However, starch is preferable as food source thus it is important to looking for an alternative material such as corn hominy feed. Corn hominy is a by product of corn milling which has high content of starch and fiber. Its high fiber contents could improve the strength of the foam. This research is aimed to formulate the composition of corn hominy and starch to produce good quality of biodegradable foam. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVOH) is added for further better physical properties. The physical analysis showed that the composition of cassava starch and corn hominy feed has affected physical properties of biodegradable foam. Increasing the content of starch resulted on increasing of foam expansion. In contrast, the more contents starch in the foam, the more brittle the foam will be. The best composition is given by ratio of 80% starch and 20% hominy feed. The adding PVOH affected the physical properties of foam which it improved the hardness index of it.