Industry-Academic Project

Development of Bio-plastic Materials

Selection of cellulosic biomass to replace biodegradable plastic containers

● Research area

- Development of Bioplastic materials

● Research project name

- Selection of cellulosic biomass to replace biodegradable plastic containers

● Research period

- April 2021 - August 2021

● Participating companies

- The Sweet Potato, a University of Seoul company

● Research objectives

- The use of disposable containers is increasing due to the increase in the use of plastics due to Corona and the increase in single-person households, causing environmental problems.

- Accordingly, there is an urgent need to develop an alternative container for biodegradable plastic that can replace plastic containers.

- Using cellulosic non-edible plants with high potential as biomass, such as silver grass, which are abundantly growing in non-arable land in Korea, to collect genetic resources that can be developed as substitutes for plastics and to select materials for characterization.

● Research contents

- Securing genetic resources for non-edible flowers and plants (more than 30 species per year), genotype analysis for cultivation, and establishment of a classification system for which no research has been conducted in Korea and no species classification system has been established

- Database of secured non-edible flowers and plant component analysis (lignin, cellulose content, etc.)

- Establishment of basic data and selection of excellent lines according to the possibility of plastic fuel through the investigation of the productivity and physiological and ecological characteristics of secured non-edible flowers and plants