Corn Steep Liquor Yields Sustainable Flame Retardant

Researchers at Fraunhofer are working on sustainable flame retardants derived from corn steep liquor, a byproduct of starch production. The team is focusing on extracting phosphorus from this waste material to create a natural flame retardant for biomaterials.

The phytic acid in corn steep liquor has strong potential as a flame retardant due to its high phosphorus content and ability to form an insulating carbon layer when heated. However, pure phytic acid is ineffective on its own and requires a source of nitrogen to form a synergistic compound with phosphorus.

The researchers successfully extracted phytic acid from corn steep liquor using a series of simple procedural steps. They also identified which amines work best with phytic acid to evaluate flame retardant performance, testing over 20 different amines.