Introduction¶
ABSTRACT¶
This final project is called Nature-Based System for Food Packaging. It is a Material Driven Study on Seaweed Bioplastics to develop a packaging system to buy food in bulk, for a long life use and reusable waterproof film and net bag that are homecompostable. Aware of the plastic pollution problems and textile waste concerns was chosen to use Alginate from the brown algae regarding invasive alien species (invasive macroalgae) ensuring sustainable exploitation of resources for food reusable packaging. For this work were used Alginate Biofilms and BioPlastic sheets and manual extrusion with a syringe (BioYarn), threads of fibres coated with Alginate. It was made a small study on Blueberry Ink for colouring the Alginate. There were developed open-source manual devices, one called the Alginator to coat yarns, and a plywood Laser 3D loom to create a Spider Web inspired groceries bag.
State of Art¶
Implications and Applications¶
link to Implications and Applications
Spiders skills¶
Spiders were here thousand of years before humans. They spread even before the dinosaurs. Their ancestors move from the water to conquer the land living under the soil, protecting them from the hot sun and maintaining their humidity. With evolved spinneret, they create many types of silks that allowed them to move long distances in the air, by rappel or ballooning, build webs on trees, and adapt to different weathers from hot to dry, from desert to the top of mountains. Spiders evolved by developing different types of silks. When building orb webs, they use at least four types of silk with different form and function. They provide strength, flexibility, and scaffold during the construction.
'“Silk has made the spider’s adaptation to these different environments possible. As spiders have evolved, they have developed many ways of using silk: to protect themselves and their eggs, to detect and catch prey, to travel to new habitats. They use some silk as glues, some watertight packaging, some as rappelling rope, some as super-flexible impact-absorbing snare netting. (p.xii)”'
Spider Silk, Lesli and Catherine L. Craig, Yale, 2010
Spider Webs, Carolina Delgado
Humans had already invented similar solutions like Kelvar and BioSteel. But producing Kevlar requires raw material derived from coal and petroleum and the use of either highly toxic solvents or very high temperatures. Also, BioSteel is still at the beginning of upscale and uses high tech labs and materials, resulting in a prime and expensive material.
Algie Fibres¶
'The fashion industry is facing many challenges as the textile consumption is expected to increase three times by 2050. In addition, there is almost no circularity in the industry as 95% of textiles after its’ product lifetime is burnt.(...) Organic organisms of algae are spread globally in the oceans and lakes and are the crucial element in the carbon flux as it converts large volumes of CO2 to oxygen. This makes a positive impact in dealing with the global warming.(...) In places with an excessive growth, algae unwanted and cause problems like worsening water quality and negative effects on local communities. From some lakes, it is already being removed but usually just left to decompose or burnt without any actual use. (...) This makes a great potential to upgrade algae value and apply it in the textile industry. By applying design thinking and experimenting in our studio lab we develop ways on how to achieve this..'
Seaweeds in Portugal and Netherlands¶
Seaweed species like Sargassum muticum and Colpomenia peregrine, among others, were native to the Eastern Pacific Ocean but has been introduced to other areas.
Seaweed Invasions: A Synthesis of Ecological, Economic and Legal Imperatives edited by Craig Johnson.
Portugal¶
Project on invasing species. Amalia Project from Politécnico de Leiria, and others.
"While generating value and contributing for the economy, the extraction of these seaweed may contribute to marine ecosystem equilibrium or even site restoration." Algae to Market Ideas - Adding value to invasing seaweds of Iberian of the Northwest. CCMAR-Centro de Ciência e do Mar, Universidade do Algarve
As Algas Marinhas e Respectivas Utilidades, Leonel Pereira, Universide de Coimbra http://www.cienciaviva.pt/rede/oceanos/1desafio/algas-marinhas-utilidades.pdf
The 3B’s Research Group (Biomaterials, Biodegradables and Biomimetics) was established in 1998 at the University of Minho https://3bs.uminho.pt/research/marine-biomaterials
Netherlands¶
SeaMe project, Nienke Hoogvliet
Seaweed Centre, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research
References¶
Beautiful Spider Web Build Time-lapse | BBC Earth
Spider spreading silk outstreams a 25mt bridging line along the air, across the river. The stuffer natural fibre on the planet, stuffer than steel.
Spiral Spider Web Keeting from the center
How was it made? Golden spider silk
PROJECT TIMELINE¶
This project had to include the limitation of time in the Lab (NL), because of the frequent flights to Lisbon (PT).
The plan was divided into 10 weeks and tasks were grouped in sequential order.
Project Timeline, Carolina Delgado