Laboratory and field scale biodegradability assessment of biocomposite cellphone cases for end of life management
department or school: Applied Science, Faculty of
department or school: Engineering, School of (Okanagan)
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCO
creator: Dilawar, Hina
issued: 2021-02-23T20:08:35Z
issued: 2021
related degree: Master of Applied Science - MASc
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: The increase in production of biobased plastics as a replacement for fossil fuel-based plastics has created the need for studies to assess their degradation under various conditions. In our case, the biodegradability of cellphone cases was determined under laboratory scale anaerobic and composting assays (58°C) as well as under field scale (60-67°C) composting conditions. The anaerobic assays were conducted under mesophilic (38°C) and thermophilic (55°C) conditions. In the laboratory scale composting assays, two trials were conducted. The first trial was conducted for 46 days using cellphone cases with dimensions of 7 × 3.5 × 0.2 and 4.6 × 3.5 × 0.2 cm. The second trial was conducted for 34 days and the cellphone cases were 2 × 2 × 0.2 and 4 × 4 × 0.2 cm. The highest biodegradation (21%) was achieved in trial 1 by the 4.6 × 3.5 × 0.2 cm phone cases. The field scale composting conditions achieved 55% weight loss of cellphone cases in 80 days. During initial anaerobic assay optimization, microcrystalline cellulose was used as a positive control and three different anaerobic seed (inocula) originated from full-scale anaerobic sludge digesters (mesophilic 1, mesophilic 2, and thermophilic) were assessed. A range of food to microorganism ratios (0.5-5 g chemical oxygen demand (COD)/ g volatile solids (VS)) for the microcrystalline cellulose was tested. It was determined that 0.5 g COD/ g VS Inoculum was the optimal food to microorganism ratio to yield the highest methane production. The subsequent anaerobic biodegradation assays contained three different sized cellphone cases conducted under mesophilic conditions (grinded, 2 × 2 × 0.2 and 4 × 4 × 0.2 cm pieces) for 169 days. The size of cellphone cases did not cause a significant difference in biodegradation under anaerobic conditions. The biodegradation of grinded cellphone cases was also tested under thermophilic conditions for up to 105 days. Mesophilic and thermophilic anaerobic digestion conditions had similar level…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/77368
note: Laboratory and field scale biodegradability assessment of biocomposite cellphone cases for end of life management by Hina Dilawar B.Sc., The University of British Columbia Okanagan, 2018 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF APPLIED SCIENCE in THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Civil Engineering) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) February 2021 © Hina Dilawar, 2021 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis/dissertation entitled: Laboratory and field scale biodegradability assessment of biocomposite cellphone cases for end of life management submitted by Ms. Hina Dilawar in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Applied Science. Dr. Cigdem Eskicioglu Supervisor Dr. Abbas Milani Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Sepideh Pakpour Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Lukas Bichler University Examiner iii Abstract The increase in production of biobased plastics as a replacement for fossil fuel-based plastics has created the need for studies to assess their degradation under various conditions. In our case, the biodegradability of cellphone cases was determined under laboratory scale anaerobic and composting assays (58oC) as well as under field scale (60-67oC) composting conditions. The anaerobic assays were conducted under mesophilic (38oC) and thermophilic (55oC) conditions. In the laboratory scale composting assays, two trials were conducted. The first trial was conducted for 46 days using cellphone cases with dimensions of 7 × 3.5 × 0.2 and 4.6 × 3.5 × 0.2 cm. The second trial was conducted for 34 days and the cellphone cases were 2 × 2 × 0.2 and 4 × 4 × 0.2 cm. The highest biodegradation (21%) was achieved in trial 1 by the 4.6 × 3.5 × 0.2 cm phone cases. The field scale composting conditions achieved 55% weight loss of cellphone cases in 80 days. During initial anaerobic assay optimization, micro…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2021-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0395940
language: eng
degree discipline: Civil Engineering
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/77368