Use sugar cane to make waterproof packaging

Australian researchers say sugarcane can be used to make a coating for waterproof paper and packaging and to enable them to recycle completely.

Organic chemist Les Edye and colleagues at CRC in Brisbane (Australia) say that this coating can replace the coatings with today's soap or plastic.

According to Edye, it is not possible to recycle packaging with a coating with soap, because these commonly used coatings always make it difficult for paper making equipment.

So Edye and colleagues developed a new coating made from lignin from sugarcane.

Lignin is a hard, waterproof "cement" that helps plants have a solid structure. For ordinary plants, when processing paper, people extract lignin, leaving only flexible cellulose fibers to make paper.

This process alters the chemical properties of lignin and changes its properties, making it impossible to use it as a coating.

Edye said: 'We used a different process to separate the components of sugarcane, so that lignin is still useful'.

In this way, the researchers produced a light brown lignin coating for spraying and experimented on some paper samples. They found that this coating 'has a similar effect' with coatings with soap, but has obvious benefits.

They are: Recyclable waterproof packaging can be recycled, unlike packaging with soap or plastic coating.

There is also a benefit: replacing soap that is made from petroleum fuel, a fuel source that is currently depleted and polluting, with biomass, ie a possible fuel source. Recycling.

This process is considered a 'green chemical' process because it does not produce waste. But Edye cannot give more details about the process, because the trade principle is to keep it confidential.

Currently CRC is negotiating with the paper and packaging industries to put their technology into application.