LYCEUM OF THE PHILIPPINES UNIVERSITY CAVITE

Potential of Peanut Hulls as an Alternative Material on Making Biodegradable

Plastic

Bustillo, Julienne M., Butiu, Lawrence, Cantillo, Paul Bengieson, Malig Jr., Reynaldo, Reyes,

John Andrei

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Biodegradable plastic came from sustainable crude materials. Plants developed to

create materials, such as, starch, for bioplastics retain carbon dioxide (CO2) as a feature

of the carbon cycle. Biodegradable plastics manufacturing additionally needs fossil fuels

to drive the distinctive generation steps (Endres, 2019). Biodegradation of plastic relief

upon both the environment in which they are put and the synthetic nature of the polymer.

Biodegradation is an enzymatic reaction; consequently it is quite certain to the synthetic

structures and bonds of the polymer (Adamcová & Vaverková, 2014).

The increase of the production of peanuts leads to the high amount of peanut hulls

or peanut shells. By making the peanut hulls into a biodegradable plastic this would help

lessen the high abundant waste from the production of nuts. The bio-plastics made from

peanut hulls and starch- milk matrix have shown potentials including the sustainability to

its own load and to be mold into other objects, these possibilities have showed after few

attempts (Troiano et al., 2018).

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The researchers came up with this study to further explore through present

knowledge and to gain acknowledgement to the potential and benefits of peanut hulls as a

biodegradable plastic. This study sought to determine the capacity of the biodegradable

plastic and how it may help the reduction of waste.

Statement of the Problem

This study aims to determine the potential of peanut hulls as biodegradable

plastic. The following are the questions that researchers intend to answer:

1. What percentage of Biodegradable plastic will degrade in 28 days when put in:

a. Soil

b. Freshwater

c. Saltwater

2. What is the significant difference in the degradation percentage of biodegradable

plastics in 28 days?

A. Soil

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B. Freshwater

C. Saltwater

3. What is the best treatment among the three in terms of their degradation?

Hypothesis

1 There will be different percentage of degradability of Biodegradable plastic in 28

days.

2 There will be no significant difference in the degradation percentage of

biodegradable plastics in 28 days.

Significance of the Study

This study aims to lessen the consumption of plastic that might cause of harm on

our environment. It might help us to prevent flood and also to help Ecosystem.

 Environment: This study will be beneficial to make our environment remain

healthy. It tends to be way to anticipate any harm on our surroundings.

 People: The investigation would likewise profit the general population since it is

a natural neighbourly and it's not hurtful.

 Future Researchers: This research can be a help to researchers as a source of

their review of related literature on their future study.

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Definition of Terms

CONCEPTUAL DEFINITIONS

Peanut: it is an oval seed and a legume that develops in pods and ripens underground

which is related to peas rather than on almonds and hazel-nuts.

Biodegradability: The limit or capacity of a material to decay after some time because of

natural activity, particularly to be broken down by microorganisms.

OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS

Peanut hull: it is the shell or hard outer part that covers and protects the peanut.

Bio-plastic: biodegradable plastics that are made from starch and peanut hulls as an

experiment.

Lyceum University of the Philippines- Cavite: an institution of higher education

located in the City of General Trias, in the province of Cavite.

Scope and Delimitation

This study was conducted by the Group 6 of Grade 12 -STEM 124, Lyceum of the

Philippines- Cavite, International School. This research utilized Peanut hulls as potential

ingredient of bio-plastic. The general intent of this study is to create bio-plastic made out

of peanut shell as an alternative to commercial plastics to add benefits for the function of

product through biodegradability.

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This study will also help the transformation of plastics industry that supports the

innovation of bio-plastics that provides many opportunities for society. The researchers

will conduct an experiment to know in what percentage of the peanut shell bio-plastic

will degrade in the span of 30 days if buried in soil and soaked in water and the results

will be analyzed by the researchers.

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CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents the review of related literature and studies that are in

connection with the research done by the researchers. In line with this, it will also present

further information regarding the synthesis of art to fully understand the study.

Related Literature

Bioplastics are degraded by numerous sorts of microorganisms in nature, and the

bioplastics are changed over into water and carbon dioxide by microbial digestion. Non-

biodegradable petrochemical plastics, for example, PA66, polypropylene and

polyethylene stay in the earth for quite a while in light of the fact that the plastics are

impervious to attack by microorganisms. At the point when testing the phenomena of

plastics in the earth, there is a general issue concerning the kind of tests to be connected,

and the ends which can be drawn. On a basic level, tests can be subdivided into three

classifications: field tests; reenactment tests; and research facility tests. Understand that

the procedure of biodegradation isn’t 100% productive, that is, the debasement of the

polymer can seldom achieve 100%. As saw in a few tests, despite the fact that total

corruption of plastics by microorganisms is beyond the realm of imagination, there is a

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decrease in mechanical properties up to 98%. This is because of the joining of a little

piece of the polymer into the microbial biomass, humus or other common items (Adhikari

et al., 2016). In connection with the study, the degradation of commercial bioplastics and

non-biodegradable plastic was tested in a short period of time at 28 days. The researchers

will be conducting a field test in soil, freshwater and saltwater for 28 days.

Reusing of plastics isn’t in every case monetarily conceivable so it ends up

important to examine the different techniques for biodegradation of plastics. Plastic waste

may inevitably finish up in fertilizers alongside other biodegradable waste. Concentrate

the biodegradation of plastic in develop fertilizers will help in understanding the

inevitable destiny of such plastic waste. Plastics can be debased by substance, warm,

photograph or natural corruption. Any physical (like weight reduction of test, elasticity)

or substance change (like carbon dioxide creation) in the material proposes organic

debasement by microorganisms. The corruption of a polymer is influenced numerous

variables like temperature, dampness, oxygen, daylight, stress, living life forms and

contaminants (Muthukumar & Veerappapillai, 2015).

Understand that the procedure of biodegradation isn’t 100% productive, that is,

the debasement of the polymer can seldom achieve 100%. As saw in a few tests, despite

the fact that total corruption of plastics by microorganisms is beyond the realm of

imagination, there is a decrease in mechanical properties up to 98%. This is because of

the joining of a little piece of the polymer into the microbial biomass, humus or other
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common items (Adhikari et al., 2016).

The nut or pod of the peanut comprises of an outer body or covering (21-29%)

encompassing the nut (71-79%) (van Doosselaere, 2013; Davis et al., 2016). Oil based

plastics caused a genuine natural issue inferable from its properties of better opposition

than natural impacts. By the reasons of their spines are exceptionally made out of

hydrogen and carbon iotas, this makes this polyolefin flexible and exceedingly sturdy to

sunlight, warmth, humidity and microorganism. The goals of the waste administration

issue brought about by non-degradable plastic materials can be accomplished by the

halfway supplanting of polyolefin with common filters. Conclusions have been

completed to find the chance of devouring normal fillers as a fortifying component in

polymer composites. Nor Fasihan Zaaba & Hanafil Ismail (2018).

Starch has been consolidated into traditional plastics trying to grant some

dimension of biodegradability on the subsequent composites. Starch is a decent

biodegradable filler hopeful since it has attractive warm strength and causes least

obstruction with dissolve stream properties of most materials utilized in the plastic

business not at all like basic cellulosic fillers, for example, woodflour and paper mash

that were found to meddle with stream properties. The major job of starch has been found

to give higher oxygen penetrability as it is devoured by microorganisms. The network is

dug out and the surface/volume proportion increments. Another impact of the higher

porousness of the grid is the encouraged arrival of corruption items from the examples.
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This is most evident when the corruption is performed in a watery domain (Uzomah et

al., 2015).

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

This chapter includes and will discuss the research design, locale, sources

of data, and the data gathering procedure that the researchers have done. Moreover, it will

explain and give further information about the method.

Research Design

The researcher will conduct a quantitative study. This study will measure and

analyze statistically to gather data. The research design that the researcher will use is

quasi experimental. The objective of the study is to collect data and to determine the

potential of peanut hulls as an alternative ingredient on making biodegradable plastic.

The experimental design will help the research in obtaining information about

causal relationship that will allow the researchers to manage the correlation between one

variable and another (Tierney, 2008).

Locale

The research includes the places where the experiment has been conducted. In this

study, the researchers will held the experiment at one of the researcher’s house located at
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49 malagasang 1-B Imus, Cavite. For the purpose of convenience of the researchers and

the experiment, and for the accessibility of the research materials, the tensile strength of

the product will be tested at the laboratory of Lyceum of the Philippines University –

Cavite.

Source of Data

The experiment was made to know the potential of peanut hulls as an alternative

ingredient for making the biodegradable plastic. The primary source of data will be

collected after the experimental research has done. Likewise the information that have

been gathered from various sources such as online articles from the world wide web,

relevant study materials and previous studies as related research literature will be the

secondary source of data.

Data Gathering

The procedure and collection of materials will be done first by buying peanut

hulls that will be bought in bundle in local market of Imus City, Cavite. Second, the soil

that will be used will be taken at one of the researcher’s house at 49 malagasang 1-B

Imus, Cavite along with Freshwater and Salt water that will be taken at different locations

as treatment. The peanut hulls will be crushed until it pulverized using blender. In making

the biodegradable plastic, the peanut hulls will be mixed with vinegar, glycerine, and

water in a pot. One table spoon of peanut starch, one table spoon of vinegar, one teaspoon

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of glycerine, and four tablespoon of water will be heat up as the mixture. The researchers

will stir the mixture continuously until it thickens. The peanut hulls biodegradable plastic

will be done after the researchers cook the mixture in oven at 125 degrees celcius for 30

minutes.

For the experimentation, the peanut hulls biodegradable plastic that was made

will undergo in three treatments. First, it will be buried in soil, then, soaked in freshwater

and lastly in saltwater. The biodegradable plastic will be tested according to their tensile

strength, moisture absorption and biodegradability. For the analysis, after the

experimentation, one-way ANOVA will be used to analyze the differences between the

three treatments and t-test will also be used to find the significant difference of peanut

hulls as a biodegradable plastic and industrial plastic.

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Adamcová, D., & Vaverková, M. (2014). Biodegradation of Degradable / Biodegradable

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Endres, H. J. (2019). Bioplastics. Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology,

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