Date of Defense

4-17-2018

Date of Graduation

12-2018

Department

Chemical and Paper Engineering

First Advisor

Matthew Stoops

Second Advisor

Adarsh Anand

Abstract

Many barrier coating formulations currently used for oil and grease resistance development in the paper industry have issues with sustainability, biodegradation, or have health concerns associated with them. This thesis tests two starches as barrier coatings to develop oil and grease resistance for food grade packaging sheets. Starch is compatible with almost all papermaking chemicals, is biodegradable, and is easily treated in wastewater systems making it a great candidate to create a more sustainable barrier coating. Cooked hydrophobic starch esters have a unique shear-thinning rheology that allow for high solid starch coatings to be applied with a reduced risk of size press nip rejection, and improved surface film formation. Hydroxypropylated starches have been shown to form films with great stability and barrier properties. These two starches were cooked and applied to handsheets of two different porosities at three different coat weights and their properties were compared to commercial grade food packaging sheets. Both starches offered great developments to strength and provided oil and grease resistance development, though hydroxypropylated starches provided lower coated porosity values which implies a lower required coat weight. Low porosity base sheets caused significantly lower porosities to be obtained and caused significantly higher levels of oil and grease resistance. Both starches seem to be capable of creating a food grade packaging sheet that is similar to a commercial grade. This thesis recommends a pilot study in order to optimize starch application techniques and provide better measures of starch runnability, which may be a determining factor in starch selection.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Open Access

Additional Files
Andrew Kathan Thesis Presentation.pdf (1436 kB)
Defense Presentation
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