Effect of Processing Conditions on Selected Properties of Starch-based Biopolymers

Process management of biopolymers is very important according to processing conditions and stability. This paper presents the results of the extrusion-cooking of thermoplastic corn starch enriched with fillers in the form of flax fibers, using the modified single screw extrusion-cooker TS-45 (Polish design) with L/D = 16 and an additional cooling section of the barrel. Discussed are the influence of the screw speed and the quantity of the filler used in the blends containing 20% of glycerol (plasticizer) on the processing efficiency, process stability, energy consumption, radial expansion index during the extrusion-cooking process of thermoplastic starch (TPS).