Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ScalePlantProt (Understanding phase behaviour in plant proteins for large scale production of films and microcapsules)
Período documentado: 2021-08-02 hasta 2023-08-01
This project aimed to investigate a novel way to process plant-based proteins into functional materials, such as microcapsules and packaging films. Plant-based proteins are natural polymers that can be obtained from renewable biomass sources, such as leguminous crop residues, making them a promising candidate for replacing petroleum-based plastics. In particular, proteins have a unique ability to form various structures at molecular level, including highly crystalline beta-sheets and amorphous random coil. This offers various physical properties that are not available in other biopolymers. However, many commercial plant-based proteins are denatured and aggregated largely during the extraction process, making them highly crystalline with high amount of beta-sheet structure. This leads to their poor solubility in water, and thus it is challenging to process them into functional materials. As a result, current approaches are often limited to a laboratory scale.
This research aimed to address this issue by investigating interaction between plant-based proteins and various solvents. Protein-solvent interaction is a core for the formation of various protein secondary structures. Controlling protein-solvent interactions and tuning protein-protein interactions opens new route for processing these proteins into materials. Such approach has a potential to enable thermoplastic processing of plant-based proteins, where polymeric materials are melted at high temperature and solidified into a shape upon cooling down. Thermoplastic processing is a particularly scalable approach and commonly used in industry to process petroleum-based polymers, thereby this will help us scale up the generation of plant-based protein materials and introduce a new sustainable plastic alternative into our society. This part was explored in WP1 and WP2 in this project.
Furthermore, this research aimed to utilize the knowledge on solubility of plant-based proteins in various solvents to encapsulate hydrophobic ingredients by a protein shell. By improving the dissolution of plant proteins in solvents, a range of phase behaviours can be explored. Having access to these phases behaviours allows us to use more efficient and benign encapsulation techniques instead of traditional spray-drying methods. With such improved functionality and performance, these microcapsules can offer alternative solutions to the petroleum-based microcapsules widely used in personal and homecare products. This part was explored in WP3 and WP4.
This research aimed to address this issue by investigating interaction between plant-based proteins and various solvents. Protein-solvent interaction is a core for the formation of various protein secondary structures. Controlling protein-solvent interactions and tuning protein-protein interactions opens new route for processing these proteins into materials. Such approach has a potential to enable thermoplastic processing of plant-based proteins, where polymeric materials are melted at high temperature and solidified into a shape upon cooling down. Thermoplastic processing is a particularly scalable approach and commonly used in industry to process petroleum-based polymers, thereby this will help us scale up the generation of plant-based protein materials and introduce a new sustainable plastic alternative into our society. This part was explored in WP1 and WP2 in this project.
Furthermore, this research aimed to utilize the knowledge on solubility of plant-based proteins in various solvents to encapsulate hydrophobic ingredients by a protein shell. By improving the dissolution of plant proteins in solvents, a range of phase behaviours can be explored. Having access to these phases behaviours allows us to use more efficient and benign encapsulation techniques instead of traditional spray-drying methods. With such improved functionality and performance, these microcapsules can offer alternative solutions to the petroleum-based microcapsules widely used in personal and homecare products. This part was explored in WP3 and WP4.
We systematically investigated the solubility of plant-based proteins in various solvents. Their protein secondary structure was analysed using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. This work led to a successful generation of plant protein materials with reduced intermolecular beta-sheets (WP1). This allowed us to test our material with a range of industrially available thermoplastic processing techniques to generate plant-based protein film (WP2).
Furthermore, we investigated the phase diagram of plant-based proteins in various solvents. (WP3). Their microstructures were investigated using confocal microscopy. This work led to a successful formation of plant-protein shells that encapsulate droplets of hydrophobic active ingredients to form a microencapsulate (WP4).
All results and knowledge acquired by the researcher has been communicated to the host institute (Xampla) through internal meetings and reports. Publishable results of this project were presented to scientific community through academic conference, international peer-reviewed journals, and patents.
Furthermore, we investigated the phase diagram of plant-based proteins in various solvents. (WP3). Their microstructures were investigated using confocal microscopy. This work led to a successful formation of plant-protein shells that encapsulate droplets of hydrophobic active ingredients to form a microencapsulate (WP4).
All results and knowledge acquired by the researcher has been communicated to the host institute (Xampla) through internal meetings and reports. Publishable results of this project were presented to scientific community through academic conference, international peer-reviewed journals, and patents.
Throughout the project, our strategy focused on scalability. Although many protein materials have been developed within and outside academia, plant protein products have never been exploited for practical applications due to the lack of efficient large-scale processing methods. This ScalePlantProt project, however, capitalize on conventional polymer processing methods to transform the manufacturing of plant protein products. We expanded our current understanding on the phase behaviour of plant-based protein, and demonstrated new pathways towards scalable generation of plant protein materials. We tested our newly designed material in a range of industrial processing technologies and proved their capability in large scale film production. Our approach is more cost-efficient, and environmentally friendly with less energy required compared to traditional solvent-casting method for producing protein films. These results from this project will be developed further at the host institution and to help enable scalable manufacturing of plant protein materials as plastic alternatives in future.