Pengembangan produk biodegradable foam berbahan baku campuran tapioka dan ampok

Abstract

Starch based foam is a packaging material made from renewable resources which are very prospective to substitute synthetic polystyrene foam. Tapioca is one of potential materials for starch based foam production due to availability and cheap price compared to other starch. Unfortunately, the foam produced only with starch is brittle, poor mechanical properties and highly sensitive to moisture. Fiber reinforcement and blending with synthetic polymer and hydrophobic materials are the way to improve foam’s properties. Corn hominy, a by product of corn dry milling industry, is a potential source to be used as fiber reinforcement due to its composition that still contained high fiber, starch, protein and fat that needed for producing starch-based foam. The objective of this research wasto develop biodegradable foam made from tapioca and corn hominy. Four steps formulation was conducted to get the best characteristics of biodegradable foam. Starch, corn hominy, modified starch, PVOH and other dry materials were mixed with various concentration. Water, plasticizer and other liquid materials were added to get total solid 50-60% and then baked with thermopressing machine at 150-1700C for 2-3 minutes. The results showed that, addition of corn hominy increased hydrophobicity and biodegradability of biofoam. On the other hand, increasing corn hominy proportion also decreased mechanical properties and brightness of biofoam and increased density. Addition of PVOHincreasedhydrophobicity and mechanical properties of biofoam but decrease biodegradability and increased density. Addition of hydrophobic starch did not make satisfying improvement on hydrophobicity or mechanical properties of biofoam, but decreased biodegradability of biofoam. Starch acetate and sizing agentaddition could increase hydrophobicity, marked by increasing of contact angle value. Meanwhile, addition of plasticizer not only improved viscoelasticity of biofoam but also increased biofoam’s hydrophobicity. Utilization of tapioca and corn hominy as biodegradable materials could increase value added of tapioca by 14,33% meanwhile for corn hominy almost71,44%.