Biopolymers often do not meet required product property requirements in their pure form. Additives, fillers, and sometimes a portion of petroleum-based polymers are compounded into a biopolymer matrix to enhance product properties in order to meet product property requirements and/or reduce cost. Biopolymer compounds typically include a compounding step more than likely performed on a co-rotating twin-screw extruder (TSE). This presentation discusses preferential configurations of a co-rotating TSE and provides operator processing tips to achieve the highest possible output rates while achieving mix quality without over-shearing the materials.
Agenda:
- Introduction to biopolymer compounding
- Biopolymer compounding challenges and solutions
- Biopolymers and specific mechanical energy
- Extruder metallurgy for biopolymers
