Structure and Properties of PLA Composite Enhanced with Biomass Fillers from Herbaceous Plants

PLA composites containing biomass fillers from the three herbaceous plants such as reed,wheat stalk,and coco-nut fiber with length and diameter at the scale of several millimeters were prepared without using additives.The reinforcement effect on the properties of PLA/biomass filler composites is investigated.The research results show that the PLA/biomass filler composites exhibit good stiffness,flexural strength,and impact toughness.Among the three kinds of biomass fillers,reed reinforced PLA composites show optimal mechanical properties.When filled with 40%–50%reed,the flexural moduli of the composites are over 7000 MPa.Flexural strength retains at the same level of pure PLA.The notch impact strength reaches to 4.50±0.73 kJ/m^(2),which is 2.06 times higher than that of pure PLA.Furthermore,the introduction of biomass fillers increases the crystallization ability of PLA and does not increase the water absorption of the composites.This research demonstrated that PLA composites prepared with biomass fillers from the herbaceous plants(namely herb plastic composites,HPCs)is a material with good comprehensive mechanical properties while retaining the intrinsic particularity of biological sources.

Life cycle assessment on the environmental impacts of different pig manure management techniques

The management of livestock waste is an effective way to achieve emission reduction and carbon fixation in agriculture and rural areas.At present,aerobic composting and anaerobic fermentation are widely used in livestock waste treatment technology.In this study,pig manure management was taken as an example,a comprehensive environmental load index was constructed to quantitatively evaluate the environmental impacts of global warming,environmental acidification,eutrophication,and photochemical ozone synthesis during aerobic composting and anaerobic fermentation based on the life cycle assessment.The results showed that the potential values of aerobic composting and anaerobic fermentation were similar,and the order was global warming,environmental acidification,eutrophication,and photochemical ozone synthesis.Anaerobic fermentation contributed more to global warming,while aerobic composting contributed more to environmental acidification,eutrophication,and photochemical ozone synthesis.In addition,the environmental load index of aerobic composting was significantly higher than that of anaerobic fermentation.There were certainly regional differences in the environmental load index,and the environmental impact effect of anaerobic fermentation was low and more environmentally friendly.These findings provided a technical basis for livestock manure management in different regions of China,which was conducive to promoting animal husbandry emission reduction and carbon sequestration.