Art and Design Commons^™

Starch is a biopolymer that is used as a co-binder alongside synthetic petroleum based latex binders for paper coating applications, though it causes production downtimes due to the problems during cooking process, such as gelling; lack of full expansion of starch granules; increase in viscosity during cooling; bacteria growth in cooked starch and difficulties in viscosity control during storage. On the other hand, synthetic binders negatively affect paper recyclability and biodegradability. To overcome these problems, a new biopolymer binder has been introduced to the paper manufacturing, being used initially as a partial replacement for petroleum based synthetic latex polymers. This …