Insect’s chitinous exoskeleton is a multifaceted material which can be provide protection in the form of a shell or be light and flexible as the wings of a fly. These range of properties are thanks to the arrangement of its components: chitin and protein. By applying the correct processing conditions, this composite can be reshaped into novel sustainable and biodegradable materials.
The project will focus on the sustainable valorisation of residual insect biomass to produce biobased chitin-protein composite materials. The approach will follow green chemistry and processing to produce fibre- and film- like materials. The resulting materials will be characterized and tested to determine their physical properties and as such, their potential applications as packaging solutions.
The project is aligned to UN's SGD:
