H. N. Salwa¹, S. M. Sapuan^1,2,*, M. T. Mastura³, M. Y. M. Zuhri²

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.9, No.4, pp. 803-827, 2021, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2021.013977

Abstract Biopolymer composite has gained huge attention for its beneficial properties such as biodegradable and less impact to the environment. This consequently would diminish the dependency on the petroleum-based polymer. Abundance of studies have been done on the development and characterization of biopolymer composite materials for food packaging application, but work on the conceptual design of biopolymer composite packaging product is hardly found. Using the Kano Model, Quality Function Deployment for Environment (QFDE), morphological map, and Analytic Hierarchy Method (AHP) framework combination, this paper presents the conceptual design of a natural fibre reinforced biopolymer composites take-out food container. To understand customer… More >

Isamar Rosa¹, Henning Roedel¹, Maria I. Allende¹, Michael D. Lepech^1,*, David J. Loftus²

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.8, No.8, pp. 845-861, 2020, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2020.09844

Abstract Biopolymer-bound Soil Composites (BSC), are a novel bio-based construction material class, produced through the mixture and desiccation of biopolymers with inorganic aggregates with applications in soil stabilization, brick creation and in situ construction on Earth and space. This paper introduces a mixture design methodology to produce maximum strength for a given soil-biopolymer combination. Twenty protein and sand mix designs were investigated, with varying amounts of biopolymer solution and compaction regimes during manufacture. The ultimate compressive strength, density, and shrinkage of BSC samples are reported. It is observed that the compressive strength of BSC materials increases proportional to tighter particle packing… More >