CHAPTER 5: Uses of Waste Starch
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Published:09 Oct 2013
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Special Collection: 2013 ebook collection , ECCC Environmental eBooks 1968-2022 , 2011-2015 food science subject collectionSeries: Green Chemistry
P. S. Shuttleworth and N. Supanchaiyamat, in The Economic Utilisation of Food Co-Products, ed. A. Kazmi and P. Shuttleworth, The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2013, pp. 110-129.
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Starch is shown to consist primarily of the two polymers, amylose and amylopectin that define its complex molecular architecture. These polymers in addition to their rich hydroxyl functionality and abundance have made them an intricate part of our lives, from a source of food through to a widely used industrial product. With escalating demands on planetary resources coming from an increasingly consumer-focused population, how we utilise the resources we have is becoming ever more important. At every processing stage of starch, there are wastes that accumulate to vast quantities that not only consign an economic impact, but negate a readily available untapped renewable resource with defined and emerging markets. It is the purpose of this chapter to give a brief introduction to starch and its structural components, and then follow with how waste starch sources can be redeployed/adapted back into both the chemical and materials industries.