Hemicellulose films obtained from softwood process water

AGFD 72

Jonas Hartman, jhartman@polymer.kth.se, John Sjöberg, johnsj@polymer.kth.se, Margaretha Söderqvist Lindblad, margsl@polymer.kth.se, and Ann-Christine Albertsson, aila@polymer.kth.se. Department of Fibre and Polymer Technology, Royal Institute of Tehnology (KTH), Teknikringen 56-58, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
In Northern Europe, the forestry gives rise to major amounts of by-products in residual streams such as the low-molecular weight polysaccharides called hemicelluloses. Our efforts are directed towards finding applications for this largely unused resource. Currently, we are investigating the hemicellulose galactoglucomannan which can be obtained from industrial softwood wastewater, e.g. in fiberboard production, and its potential as a film-former. The films may find application as barrier layers in food packaging. Our contribution will describe how films with various plasticizers can be formed and, furthermore, describe some properties of these films. Targeted properties are a combination of both low oxygen permeation and good flexibility. The analyses we perform include viscosimetry, moisture scans of moduli using a special purpose dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), and oxygen permeability using Ox-Tran Mocon.
 

Sci-Mix
8:00 PM-10:00 PM, Monday, 14 March 2005 Convention Center -- Sails Pavilion, Sci-Mix

Division of Agricultural & Food Chemistry

The 229th ACS National Meeting, in San Diego, CA, March 13-17, 2005