Prof.  Tsair-Wang  Chung
Chung Yuan Christian University, Taoyuan, Taiwan,  China

Title: Formulation of Composite Materials Using the Biomass from a Newly Developed Pineapple Leaf Fiber Extraction Process

Abstract:

The harvesting of pineapples results in a large amount of discarded pineapple leaves. However, pineapple leaf fibers (PALF) have low density, high tensile strength, and good thermal insulation properties. In this study, pineapple leaves were first pretreated, and then fibers were extracted using a newly developed hydraulic fiber extraction and degumming process machine. The goal was to use a more environmentally friendly method for simultaneous fiber extraction and degumming. The resulting biomass can be further combined with bioplastics to produce biodegradable composite materials for applications. In this study, the novel hydraulic fiber extraction and degumming process machine was tested for improving and the bioplastic samples were formulated by adjusting the ratios of different bioplastics with the pineapple leaf residue biomass powders. The tensile strength and the elongation at break of the pineapple leaf residue composites were optimized the composition using the response surface methodology (RSM). The optimal tensile strength of 15.48 MPa and elongation at break of 12.71% were achieved with a composition of 60% polylactide (PLA), 15% polybutylene succinate (PBS), 10% polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT), and 15% pineapple leaf residue biomass in the composites.

Biography:

Dr. Tsair-Wang Chung received the B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Chung Yuan Christian University, Taiwan in 1985, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Engineering from University of Missouri-Columbia, USA in 1991 and 1993, respectively.      He was appointed as a research Scientist in Industrial Technology Research Institute, Taiwan in 1993 and appointed as a Professor of Chemical Engineering in Chung Yuan Christian University in 1995. Currently, he is a principal investigator with the applications of biomass technology, separation and purification processes/automatic devices. He has authored or co-author more than 240 research papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings. His current research interests include sustainability, biomass, separation technology, and membrane. Dr. Chung received the World’s Top 2% Scientists (lifetime achievement) in Chemical Engineering by Stanford University, the 1st Grade Reward of Talent Scholar from National Council of Science and Technology (8 times), and the Annual Excellent Technology Transfer Awards in Chung Yuan Christian University. He was also invited as keynote speaker and invited speaker in several international conferences recently.