Original Article
Mwesigwa R1,2*, Mwasiagi JI2,
Abstract
Over 30 million tons of banana peels are thrown away annually worldwide, leading to disposal by burning which is environmentally unfriendly. Strong governments support for environmental conservation and increasing dangers of incineration emissions have directed research into eco-friendly materials. The aim of this research therefore, was to study the utilisation of banana peels, a case study of factors affecting viscosity of locally made bio-resin from raw banana peels. The peels were washed, boiled and pureed. Effect of temperature, time, resin, glycerin, and water ratios on bio-resin viscosity were studied through use of the universal rotatable design and regression analysis. Second order polynomial regression equation for viscosity was fitted and exhibited R2 value of 95.03%. According to the results obtained in this research paper, resin quantity was the most influential factor towards the desired viscosity of the bio-resin contributing 41% to the regression model. Other factors included water ratio (20%), glycerin ratio (18.6%) among others. The developed bio-resin had an optimized viscosity response value of 242.01 mPa.s within confidence interval limits of 229.6 mPa.s to 254.5 mPa.s. This viscosity value is in a close range to existing commercial resins including maize cornstarch bio-resin and synthetic urea formaldehyde used in reinforced bio-composites development.