The University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) will coordinate a project funded by the European Union (EU) to convert waste from banana plantations into useful fibers for plastics and feed production for aquaculture farms.

The first of the meetings to start the European project LIFE Baqua, belonging to LIFE Environment and Climate Action Program of the EU, was held in ULPGC facilities.

The project will last three years and has the main objective of establishing a circular economy proposal from waste generated in a banana plantation, through the pseudostem. From that pseudostem it is possible to obtain natural fiber having high quality and residual pulp through a mechanical processing that will be optimized.

With the treated fiber, the development of new strengthened compound plastic material will be researched as it could be used in the automotive sector as well as biofilms that, among other applications, could be used in the plantation for agricultural purposes.

Source: FIS // Original Article