Methods of bioplastic producing from insects’ cuticular

Abstract

Today, the biggest environmental problem of mankind is the pollution of the environment with plastic waste. The reason is that polyethylene is resistant to biological destruction under natural conditions, which in turn causes the accumulation of plastic products in the environment. Therefore, to prevent an environmental catastrophe, we offer technology for the production of bioplastics from the chitin of beetles. This method offers a new way to produce objects with complex shapes and establishes chitosan as a viable bioplastic that can potentially be used instead of existing nondegradable plastics for commercial production. The process of making bioplastics from beetles consists of four stages: demineralization, deproteinization, deacetylation, plasticization. We used Colorado potato beetles as raw materials. Demineralization of pre-dried and ground material was performed by adding concentrated nitric acid followed by heating. After that, the washed and dried raw materials in the process of deproteinization were treated with sodium hydroxide, resulting in pure chitin. To obtain chitosan, deacetylation of the obtained chitin with 50% sodium hydroxide was performed by heating the mixture. At the last stage, chitosan is dissolved in a solution of acetic acid, followed by drying.