Biosourced Grain Disposable Trays

To combat single-use plastic items, this food packaging upgrade is studied and formulated to result in a disposable tray design. This is made using sustainable biosourced low-cost materials and used a method of hot pressing it all together to create the traps.

It is made rom brewer's spent grain, which is a leftover byproduct of the beer industry blended together with potato starch. The reference design point referred to EPS, which is expanded polystyrene trays to experiment with sizing and flexural strength. It also depends on the amount of water content used in the mixture, as well as variables such as density, pressing apparatus, and pressing temperature. The spent grains are dried in an oven prior until it reaches a solid content measuring to be around 97%.

Image Credit: Polymers