Extraction of Casein from Milk and its Conversion in to a Biodegradable Polymer

Abstract

Making our planet Earth green has nowadays become an ultimate goal of all revolutionary ideas around. Moreover, bringing out sustainable innovations in an existing technology has become more enthralling than developing a new technology approaching towards a greener earth. Plastics which have numerous utilizations in everyday life if produced from some renewable resources and are biodegradable can immensely help in achieving the aforementioned goal without creating any harm to the existing ecology of Earth. These plastics unlike conventional petroleum based plastics are not decomposed by combustion and can be degraded in favourable environmental conditions. The scarcity of space for disposal of plastic waste and growing environmental concerns for non-biodegradable synthetic plastics have fuelled research towards development of eco-friendly biopolymer materials. It is very difficult to reduce the consumption of plastic products due to their versatile properties, but it is possible to replace petroleum-based plastics with alternative materials that have polymer-like properties and that degrade after being discarded. In this paper we present a concept of producing a biodegradable polymer from casein which is protein extracted from milk. Casein extracted from various milk samples is compared for its yield and the sample with maximum yield is then blended with the plasticizers to form a biodegradable polymer and can be used for various low density polymer applications.