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Green Engineering Business Idea: Potato Starch Based Polymers

Guest post by: Kalen Smith

Article Overview: As fossil fuels become scarcer, engineers will have to become more creative about finding ways to develop new polymers. One idea that entrepreneurs can take advantage of is building a business that produces polymers made from potato starches. These are already used for consumer products and may be valuable for engineering applications as well.

Green Engineering Business Idea: Potato Starch Based Polymers

I recently developed an idea for a possible green business venture while I attended graduate school. The school I attended was very environmentally conscious and most of the silverware that the school used was not made with plastic, but potato starches. At first I was skeptical about the quality of the silverware, but I found it to be durable and dependable. I have begun to wonder if these starches may eventually replace plastics as an engineering material, which could inspire a number of business ideas for both large corporations and new entrepreneurs. I have not had the opportunity to properly test the engineering properties of products made from potato starches, however preliminary experimentation suggested that they possess the properties for a number of engineering applications. When I tried bending the silverware, I noticed that they were more durable and my first approximation was that they probably yielded an ultimate tensile strength about 3-4 times that of a standard piece of plastic silverware. I would not be surprised at all if that estimate was confirmed with a tensile test in an engineering experimentation lab.

Of course, the engineering properties could probably be easily adjusted by using different kinds of starches or mixing them with agents. Since traditional polymers are made with fossil fuels, this could be a strong business opportunity as fossil fuels are being consumed. While these polymers only seem to be used for a limited number of consumer applications, a clever business could be based on expanding this idea towards engineering applications as well. Even if the scope with which these polymers could be used for engineering purposes may be rather limited, their use could limit the degree to which fossil fuels would be consumed for producing other polymers. It is also probable that more businesses would become more interested in purchasing polymers made from potato starches as prices of oil rise.

There are a number of milestones that would need to be met to make a venture like this successful:

· Test the mechanical and chemical properties of polymers made from these starches

· Determine how these properties could be altered

· Establish which engineering applications could be satisfied with these polymers

· Raise capital for business venture, particularly for extraction, polymerization, and testing of polymers

· Identify manufacturing facilities that may be interested in purchasing starches for developing polymers or purchasing the polymers themselves

So far there are a handful of businesses around the world that already produce polymers based on potato starches. However, it does not seem as though the business community has recognized this as a strong and profitable opportunity. As the green revolution begins to gain momentum this may be a strong business opportunity for the future and engineers and entrepreneurs should be prepared to take advantage of it before it shows up on the radar of larger corporations.

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Article Tags: engineering business, green business, potato starch, starch polymers



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