Molded soybean-based plastics

Soy protein can be easily isolated from soybeans and molded. Soy plastics, which for a short period were used in automotive knobs and even body panels, never saw the widespread adoption predicted by Henry Ford in the 1930s. The Second World War sent his dream of growing a car like a crop into oblivion. Yet, as bio-based materials were being phased out by a growing synthetic, petroleum-based plastics industry, soy-protein plastics were being researched at the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan, probably propelled by its leader Henry Ford s conscience, in an effort to give back to the American farmer what Ford tractors had taken away. 

Extrusion is a cost effective manufacturing process. Extrusion is popularly used in large scale production of food, plastics and composite materials. Most widely used thermoplastics are processed by extrusion method. Many biopolymers and their composite materials with petroleum-based polymers can also be extruded. These include pectin/starch/poly(vinyl alcohol) (Fishman et al. 2004), poly(lactic acid)/sugar beet pulp (Liu et al. 2005c), and starch/poly(hydroxyl ester ether) (Otey et al. 1980), etc. In this study, composite films of pectin, soybean flour protein and an edible synthetic hydrocolloid, poly(ethylene oxide), were extruded using a twin-screw extruder, palletized and then processed into films by compression molding process or blown film extrusion. The films were analyzed for mechanical and structural properties, as well as antimicrobial activity. 

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