The effect of glycerol from biodiesel production waste as a plasticizer on physical character edible film of chitosan

Chitosan edible film is a thin layer of clear packaging made from chitosan edible and biodegradable. Edible chitosan films are stiffer and less elastic, so it should be added plasticizer glycerol. One source of glycerol is inexpensive and easily obtained is crude glycerol from biodiesel production. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of various concentrations of crude glycerol plasticizer on the physical characteristics of chitosan edible film and determine the best concentration of crude glycerol plasticizer. This study used a completely randomized design (CRD) with five treatments and four replications. The Edible film using the g chitosan and some plasticizers concentration of crude glycerol (0.2, 0.4, 0.8, and 1 mL) and a control treatment that used 0.4 mL of pure glycerol was made. The results showed that the use of crude glycerol plasticizer had effect to the physical character of chitosan edible film. Increasing concentrations of crude glycerol plasticizer exhibits the lowers value of the thickness and tensile strength, however, can increase the value of percent elongation. The best concentration of this research is the treatment of B (0.2 ml crude glycerol) which resulted in 0.55 mm thickness, the tensile strength of 95.38 kgf/cm² and a percent elongation of 2.13%.