PRELIMINARY-STUDY OF FORMATION OF FILMS FROM CELLULOSE-ENRICHED AGRICULTURAL BY-PRODUCTS

Two agricultural by-products, sugar-beet pulp and wheat bran, have bee n examined for their suitability to be transformed into bioplastics by esterification by lauroyl chloride. Influence of cellulose content wa s studied on eleven samples enriched in cellulose after chemical or en zymatic removal of pectins from sugar-beet pulp and heteroxylans from wheat bran. After a pretreatment by immersion in 0.5 mol/L sulfuric ac id, esterification was carried out with lauroyl chloride. Neither the amount of cellulose nor the extraction treatment had a marked influenc e on the formation of plastic. A film could be obtained from all the w heat-bran samples, including samples with low cellulose content, but o nly from one sugar-beet pulp sample. The crystallinity of the cellulos e in sugar-beet pulp and wheat bran were different. The nature of cell ulose could be responsible for the failure of sugar-beet pulp residues to form plastic. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.