Utilization of microalgal-derived ash as a mineral reinforcement material in biocomposite formulation with polyvinyl alcohol

International Conference and Exhibition on Biopolymers & Bioplastics

August 10-12, 2015 San Francisco, USA

Dang-Thuan Tran, Hyun-Ro Lee, Min S Park and Ji-Won Yang

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Material Sci Eng

Abstract :

Downstream processing of microalgae biomass feedstock such as gasification is an alternative approach which generates fly ash
as by a product. The utilization of the ash to make added-value materials could partially offset the total cost of microalgaebased
chemicals production. In this work, fly ash converted from lipid-extracted algal (LEA) of the strain Nannochloropsis salina
was used as fillers for biocomposite fabrication with biodegradable polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The negative charges ash particles was
dispersed and assembled with poly (diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA) at pH 10, followed by absorption of PVA solution.
Composite PVA/ASH and PVA/ASH/PDDA films were synthesized by using solution casting method. Universal testing machine
(UTM), thermogravimetry analyzer (TGA), and differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) were used to determine the mechanical
and thermal properties the films. The morphological and crystal structures of the composites were investigated by scanning electron
microcospy (SEM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), respectively. Results showed
that incorporation of the linear polycations significantly enhanced dispersion of ash particles in PVA matrix even at 25% of ash
loading, whereas the ash particles tended to aggregate in PVA matrix at higher loading than 5% and severer at 25%. That caused the
remarkable decrease in ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of the PVA/ASH composites from 34.5 to 22.8 MPa at 5% to 25% ash content,
respectively, which were lower than 37.6 to 32.2 MPa determined for PVA/ASH/PDDA composite films at the same ash proportion.
Moreover, these composites significantly increased Young’s modulus and thermal resistance compared with the pure PVA.

Biography :

Dang-Thuan Tran completed his PhD in 2013 from National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. Currently, he is working as a Postdoctoral researcher at Advanced
Biomass R&D Center, KAIST, Korea. He is currently working on downstream processing of microalgae-based biofuels and bioproducts production. Specifically, he
alternatively focuses on conversion of lipid extracted algal biomass to biocomposite materials. He has published more than 15 papers in reputed journals and has
been serving as a reviewer of various journals including Bioresource Technology, Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Biomass & Bioenergy.