Sarplastic

The large production conventional plastic leads to pollution and environmental issues. As an alternative, biodegradable polymers such as starch, polylactic acid and polyhydroxyoctanoates, have been developed. Nevertheless, most of these biopolymers present significant drawbacks when compared to benchmark synthetic polymers  (lower barrier and mechanical performance)[1]. Furthermore, the utilization of vegetables sources for biopolymer production competes with their use as food. Thus, valorization of aquatic biomass, available in large quantities, even in the form of waste or weed, represents an interesting alternative. Sargassum, an abundant macroalgae genus in the Carribean Sea, has been demonstrated to be an optimum material for packaging development. Moreover, Sargassum are transported towards sea shores, giving rise to a residue that affects the quality of beaches, the marine ecosystem and the communities, where tourism, fishing, and other economic activities are disrupted [3].Therefore, utilization of this residue for cellulose and lignocellulose based packaging materials would be in line with circular economy.

Plastic pollution can now be found on every beach in the world. In 2018, a global population of 7700 million people produced over 350 million tons of plastic. Every day approximately 8 million pieces of plastic pollution find their way into our oceans. Recent studies have revealed marine plastic pollution in 100% of marine turtles, 59% of whales, 36% of seals and 40% of seabird species examined. On another side, in Colombian Caribbean Sea, particularly in San Andres Island, a population of 76000 inhabitants, where the island incomes are focused almost exclusively on tourism, craftsman fishing, and labor in the sector of goods and services. [4], unprecedented amounts of biomass floating Sargassum have been reported as a result of global warming and ocean pollution [5]. In this context, valorization of wastes derived from the overproduction of Sargassum macroalgae and their application as plastic materials for packaging could be an alternative solution for environmental challenges as well as a promising industrial activity for San Andres community and other Caribbean island communities in the future.  

The economy of the Department of San Andrés and Providencia is based mainly on tourism and commerce, the previous activities are complementary to those of agriculture and subsistence fishing, which are insufficient to supply the islands and it means that most of the food for daily consumption, both for natural and natural ones, must be imported from the interior of the country. The main agricultural product that was commercially exploited in the archipelago, was the coconut, but also avocado, sugar cane, mango, orange, name, noni and yucca are produced, productions which were declining over the years due to damage in the land and urbanization of many areas.

This project hopes to generate new  approaches that may integrate the island community into a dynamic and globalized industrial economy, seeking a positive response within an technological framework that may be applied for the improvement of the quality of life of the islanders’ population at the same time that contribute to mitigate the damages and consequences of climate change and plastic pollution. The development of an scale up process to produce large amount of  marine algae based biopolymeric films in an industrial plant, incorporating local staff, is expected in the medium term. 

Cellulose nanocrystals fabricated from Sargassum biomass, based on scientific works developed and published by our team of scientific researchers, will be used to generate films for packaging applications. Our previous works, carried out in the Institute of Agrochemical and Food Technology in Valencia-Spain and in the Nanobiotechnology and Applied Microbiology research group in Bogotá-Colombia, have shown that reducing the purification steps of nanocrystal production not only diminish the production costs and environmental impact, but also yield novel high-performance cellulose-based biopolymeric films able to replace petroleum-based polymers in food packaging.

Once Sargassumm biomass is gathered from coastal areas in the San Andres Caribbean sea, a simple and green purification procedure is carried out, according to the method developed in our previous works [7,8], in order to sequentially remove cell wall components and obtain pure cellulose. The cellulosic fractions are used as starting materials for the production of nanocrystals by means of acid hydrolysis. After that, cellulosic films are produced by dispersing cellulosic fractions or cellulosic nanocrystals in water and the solid fraction remaining is dried at room temperature. The mechanical and physicochemical properties of the obtained materials are already characterized and it is known that are similar to the benchmark synthetic polymers used for packaging. In that respect, it is worth noting that the films display excellent mechanical performance, showing higher elastic modulus, tensile strength and elongation at break. When comparing with thermoplastic corn starch and polylactic acid, the nanocrystal films show a improvement in terms of Young’s modulus and tensile strength, making these films a more promising alternative for packaging.

References:

[1] Benito-González, et al. Cellulose nanocrystal-based films produced by more sustainable extraction protocols from Posidonia oceanica waste biomass. Cellulose 26, 8007–8024 (2019)

[2] Lim, J., et al. Sargassum siliquosum J. Agardh extract as potential material for synthesis of bioplastic film. J Appl Phycol 30, 3285–3297 (2018) 

[3] El Isleño. 2014. Available at: http://www.xn--elisleo-9za.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8320:coralina-algas-no-deben-generar-preocupacion&catid=41:ambiental&Itemid=83.

[4] San Andres Economy. Available at:  https://www.sanandresislas.com.co/san-andres-economy 

[5] GAVIO, Brigitte, et al. Cantidades masivas de Sargassum pelágicos en las costas de San Andrés Isla, Caribe suroccidental. Acta Biológica Colombiana, 20, 1, 239-241, (2015) 

[6] La economía de las islas. Available at:  https://www.sanandres.gov.co/index.php/archipielago/informacion-general/economia 

[7] Benito-González, et al. High-performance starch biocomposites with celullose from waste biomass: film properties and retrogradation behaviour. Carbohydr Polym 216:180–188 (2019)

[8] Martínez-Sanz M, et al. On the extraction of cellulose nanowhiskers from food by-products and their comparative reinforcing effect on a polyhydroxybutyrate-co-valerate polymer. Cellulose 22:535–55, (2015b)

Departamento Administrativo de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación, Colciencias, entity in charge of promoting public policies to promote science, technology and innovation in Colombia.

Corporación colombiana de investigación agropecuaria, AGROSAVIA, decentralized public entity of mixed nonprofit participation, of a scientific and technical nature, whose purpose is to work in the generation of scientific knowledge and agricultural technological development through scientific research, adaptation of technologies, transfer and advice with in order to improve the competitiveness of production, equity in the distribution of the benefits of technology, sustainability in the use of natural resources, the strengthening of the scientific and technological capacity of Colombia and, contribute to raising the society's quality of life.