Evaluation of suitability of wheat bran as a natural filler in polymer processing

Abstract

The promotion of sustainable economic development and issues related to ecological and environmental protection has led to a common interest in the use of raw materials from renewable sources. Recently, there have been many scientific works on the use of different natural wastes as components in the production of new composite materials and polymers. An example of natural waste that is not managed efficiently is grain husk, which is a by-product of the production of flour and other products. This work studied the use of wheat grain husk for plastic processing. A short review is presented of studies concerning the use of natural waste and materials as fillers for natural and synthetic polymers, as well as their potential applications. The authors conducted original research on the influence of the mass fraction and particle size of wheat bran on the selected properties of low-density polyethylene, which can be useful in the evaluation of the suitability of this raw material for particular technical applications.

Rotational Molding of Linear Low-Density Polyethylene Composites Filled with Wheat Bran

“…This solution is aimed at partial replacement of plastics. A similar effect can be obtained by using bran as a filler in polymer composites, which was investigated in multiple studies [22,23]. An interesting feature of wheat bran is its composition.…”

Efficiency of Twin-Screw Extrusion of Biodegradable Poly (Butylene Succinate)-Wheat Bran Blend

“…The WB conditioning process involved, successively, two-time grinding using a millstone, drying in a laboratory drier for 24 h at 80 °C, followed by sieving the dried WB with a moisture content of 3wt.% on a 5-sieve column shaker with the mesh size decreasing from 1 mm to 0.2 mm in order to obtain a fraction with a particle size below 0.2 mm. The particle size was selected as the smallest possible on the basis of previous studies, where an adverse effect of the particle size on the properties of the composition was found [ 42 , 64 ].…”

“…Depending on their origin, they differ in composition and, consequently, in properties, but their primary ingredients are cellulose, lignin, hemicellulose and starch [ 38 , 39 , 40 ]. The main restrictions in terms of using LCF are their hydrophilic nature, low strength of interfacial interactions with the matrix and their poor thermal resistance, since hemicellulose undergoes thermal decomposition around 150 °C [ 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 ]. PBS is a high strength material with an aliphatic structure, a low melting point of 115 °C and its particles have a hydrophilic character.…”

Analysis of Selected Properties of Injection Moulded Sustainable Biocomposites from Poly(butylene succinate) and Wheat Bran

“…150 • C. Therefore, PBS is suitable for the production of biocomposites with natural fillers because it has a low melting point (about 115 • C) [17,[58][59][60][61]. Thirdly, the mechanical strength of LCF biocomposites is usually inversely proportional to the filler content [4,21,50,62]. The decrease in strength is usually related to the strength of the interfacial interactions at the polymer matrix/filler boundary.…”