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1.0 INTRODUCTION

Oil palm is widely used for its oil. From its oil it can make soap, cooking oil

and etc. Oil palm is easily to biodegrade due to its natural characteristics. For

industrial use, the oil will separate from its bunch. The tones of oil palm bunch

usually become wasted without reusing it. Oil palm bunch contains a lot of fibers.

The natural fiber from the oil palm can be easily decompose by organisms

Polylactic acid or polylactide (PLA) is a biodegradable, thermoplastic,

aliphatic polyester derived from renewable resources, such as corn starch(in the

U.S.) or sugarcanes (rest of world). Although PLA has been known for more than a

century, it has only been of commercial interest in recent years, in light of its

biodegradability.

In this project, the PLA and oil palm fibers will be blend and compress to form

a film. From that film it can be mould or been shaped into different type of plastics. It

also can replace the usage of polystyrenes that is non-biodegradable. Not only is

that it c

an be made into furniture due to its strong characteristics. Produced from natural

substances made the product to be easily decomposed by microorganisms when it is

dispose.

When the plastics had been used up or been dispose, the plastics is

unnecessary to burn instead it can be decompose in a short period of time. Different

with non-biodegradable plastics that need a long period to make it decompose bit by

bit. The benefit when using the oil palm bunch is that it is priceless and wasted.

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1.1 DEFINITION

Biodegradable plastics are plastics that will decompose in natural aerobic

(composting) and anaerobic (landfill) environments. Biodegradation of plastics can

be achieved by enabling microorganisms in the environment to metabolize the

molecular structure of plastic films to produce an inert humus-like material that is

less harmful to the environment. They may be composed of either bioplastics, which

are plastics whose components are derived from renewable raw materials,

or petroleum-based plastics, which utilize an additive. The use of bioactive

compounds compounded with swelling agents ensures that, when combined with

heat and moisture, they expand the plastic's molecular structure and allow the

bioactive compounds to metabolize and neutralize the plastic.

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1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT

The demand of the plastic rising due to an increased consumer interest. Since

the 1950s, one billion tons of plastic has been discarded and may persist for

hundreds or even thousands of years. Plastics can be divided into two groups,

biodegradable and non-biodegradable. The production of the non-biodegradable is

far cheaper than that can biodegrade. Due to that, the production of non-

biodegradable plastics is rapidly increased from time to time. The disadvantages of

these plastics are that will take long time for decompose in earth. Much land will be

use in order to accommodate such demands.

Burning the plastics will produce chemical substances that can harm human

life. In some cases, burning plastic can release toxic fumes. Burning the plastic

polyvinyl chloride (PVC) may create dioxin. Also, the manufacturing of plastics often

creates large quantities of chemical pollutants. This can affect human life especially

infants and the old folk

Non-biodegradable plastics also affect the aquatics life. The plastics were

disposing unsystematically to the sea. The aquatics lives such as the sea turtle

cannot differ its own food and the plastics. The aquatics life cannot digest the

plastics and eventually leads to its own death. This problem had cause a lot of

aquatics life died.

Some of the plastics in the world are commonly made form chemical

substances and petroleum that mostly can harm the environment. The

biodegradable plastics also have to take proper waste management. Without proper

management will lead to polluting and can endangered the ecosystem.

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1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The aim of the present work was to study the effectiveness of the combination

polylactic acid and oil palm fibers to become biodegradable plastics by blending and

compressing it. The mixing in the blending and compressing of oil palm fibers and polylactic

acid, which produced a film, will be evaluated. Thus, it is believed that the film produced is

flexible and strong is the attractive feature that can be utilized in plastics and furniture

industries

The objective is then focused on:

To reduce the continuous burning of non-biodegradable plastics

To study the effect of the reaction of plastics that been made by PLA and oil palm

fibers towards microorganism and the environment

To reduce the production amount of non-biodegradable plastics

To produce natural plastics in high amount

)

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2.0 Literature review

2.1 Introduction

Biodegradable plastics which it can be biodegrade faster than the commercial plastics. It consist two main materials that 100% can be biodegrade such as oil palm bunch and PLA. Polylactic acid or polylactide (PLA) is a biodegradable, thermoplastic, aliphatic polyester derived from renewable resources, such as corn starch (in the U.S.) or sugarcanes (rest of world). Although PLA has been known for more than a century, it has only been of commercial interest in recent years, in light of its biodegradability. PLA is a sustainable alternative to petrochemical-derived products, since the lactides from which it is ultimately produced can be derived from the fermentation of agricultural by-products such as corn starch [2] or other carbohydrate-rich substances like maize, sugar or wheat.While the oil palm bunch into the composting of EFB is intended to develop a commercially viable compost production system. Of utmost importance is the production of high-quality compost in a short period of time.

2.2 oil palm bunch fibre

Two types of composting methods, open and closed, were tested. In the closed system, a semi-permeable membrane was used to cover the windrow pile. The height of the pile was 1.5 m. The closed composting process was carried out with aeration at a rate of about 250 mt/day/m3. The air was supplied by a electric pump through perforated tubes laid at the bottom of the pile. Eighty mt of EFB were mixed with POME and chicken manure.

In the open system, the pile was not covered. One mt of EFB was used, to which was added liquid fermentation wastes and chicken manure. Regular turning was carried out manually with the aid of a tractor equipped with a front loader. Both lots of composting material had an initial C/N ratio of about 30, and a moisture content of about 65%. Water was added to maintain the required moisture level. Temperatures were monitored at 10 and 100 cm from the surface of the compost heaps.

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2.3 Polylactic acid(PLA) Ring-opening polymerization of lactide to polylactideBacterial fermentation is used to produce lactic acid from corn starch or cane sugar. However, lactic acid cannot be directly polymerized to a useful product, because each polymerization reaction generates one molecule of water, the presence of which degrades the forming polymer chain to the point that only very low molecular weights are observed. Instead, lactic acid is oligomerized and then catalytically dimerized to make the cyclic lactide monomer. Although dimerization also generates water, it can be separated prior to polymerization. PLA of high molecular weight is produced from the lactide monomer by ring-opening polymerization using most commonly a stannous octoate catalyst, but for laboratory demonstrations tin(II) chloride is often employed. This

between 50-80 °C and a melting temperature between 173-178 °C.

Polylactic acid can be processed like most thermoplastics into fiber (for example using conventional melt spinning processes) and film. The melting temperature of PLLA can be increased 40-50 °C and its heat deflection temperature can be increased from approximately 60°C to up to 190 °C by physically blending the polymer with PDLA (poly-D-lactide). PDLA and PLLA form a highly regular stereocomplex with increased crystallinity. The temperature stability is maximised when a 50:50 blend is used, but even at lower concentrations of 3-10% of PDLA, there is still a substantial improvement. In the latter case, PDLA acts as a nucleating agent, thereby increasing the crystallization rate. Biodegradation of PDLA is slower than for PLA due to the higher crystallinity of PDLA. PDLA has the useful property of being optically transparent.

There have been two processes in the synthesis of PLA out of lactic acid:

1. direct polycondensation—a process of using solvent in vacuum to directly dehydrate polycondense the lactide.

2. nonsolvent method— a process of firstly synthesizing become cyclic dimer PLA from lactic acid and then ring-opening polymerizing to make PLA. PLA molecular polymerization reaction is showed as follows:

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One research institute in the United States successfully converse the waste whey liquid left by cheese-producing process to glucose syrup, and then use germs to ferment the glucose syrup to produce lactic acid contained fermentation broth. Through isolation using electrodialysis and vaporizing waters by heating, PLA for making film and coating is produced and it can be used to produce fresh-keeping bags and packaging materials free of polyethylene and waterproofing wax.

Erstein’s Sugar Refinery in France cooperated with one university to invent another process to prepare PLA. They use beets as raw materials, firstly degrade into monosaccharide and then ferment into lactic acid, then use chemical method to polymerize lactic acid into PLA. PLA can also be produced by waste sugar liquid of industrial sugar-refining process and thus greatly curtail producing cost.

PLA

2.4 Microorganism activity in the soil

Soil microorganism and enzymes are important parts of forest ecosystem and sensitive to environmental changes. They have many critical functions in energy conversion and material cycle of forest soil. However, there are few studies about soil biological properties under subalpine coniferous forest, in particular, a serial of spruce plantation chronosequences following clear-cutting of natural coniferous forest in western Sichuan. We measured the quantity of soil microorganism (including bacteria, fungi and actinomyces), enzyme activity and soil nutrients under spruce plantation chronosequences in western Sichuan to investigate soil biological properties and their relationship with soil nutrients. The results showed that soil microorganism, enzyme activity and soil nutrients of the mature spruce plantation were significantly lower than those of the young spruce plantation and secondary broad-leaved forest. Soil fertility degraded greatly with the increasing of spruce

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plantation age and was mainly affected by forest micro-environment. There were significant correlation between the amounts of soil microorganisms, soil enzyme activities and nutrients (e.g. soil organic matter, total N, total P, alkali-hydrolyzable N and available K). Therefore soil biological indices can be used to evaluate soil fertility. In order to accelerate the course of restoration and rehabilitation of degraded pure plantation, the strategy and measures were put forward, including application of thinning rationally for existing dense plantations and establishment of mixture forest of coniferous and broad-leaved trees for new afforestations, which would create good forest micro-environment for

Our main purpose was to study the microflora and the enzyme activity in soil of polluted areas, and to identify the factors affecting them. For the assessment, the following indices were identified: Gross (total) contents of heavy metals (HM) and the content of available heavy metals. Results of correlation analysis showed positive correlation (r = 0.74) between cellulase and phosphatase activities in the soil, while positive correlation between cellulase and invertase activities (r = 0.26) as well as between phosphatases and invertases (r = 0.24) was shown to be weak. There was also a positive correlation between invertase activity of the landfill soils and content of ammonium ions (r = 0.60). Glucose disintegration intensity (dehydrogenase activity) in the dump soils was considerably related only to the contents of nitrates. The relation was direct (r = 0.66). Negative values of the correlation index characterize the relation of soil dehydrogenase activity with other measured ferments. However, according to our analysis, activity of a given group of ferments was considerably related to the total number of aerobic chemoorganotrophic soil organisms (r = 0.72). In the soil of dumping sites, bacterial coenoses comprise the genera of Actinomyces, Enterobacter, Bacillus, and Coryneform bacteria, with the species of Bacillus brevis, Bacillus cereus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacter aerogenes.

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3.0 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Material

Shows the chemical used

Material used Supplier

Polylactic acid Sugar cane husk

Nature fiber Oil palm bunch

3.2 Experimental devices and apparatus

Tables 3.2 shows the apparatus used in study

Apparatus FunctionBeaker(1500 ml) To take the raw nature fiberContainer To take the nature fiberSiever To sieve the raw nature fiberHot press To make the conglomeration

mixture of PLA and nature fiber to form a film

Brabender To blend the mixture of PLA and nature fiber to form conglomeration

Instron To test the tensile of sampleCutter To cut the film into the dumb-bell

shapeOven To dry the sampleElectronic weight measurement Measure the weight of sample,

PLA, nature fiber

Table 3.1

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PERCENTAGE PLA(g) FIBER(g) TOTAL(g) RATIO100% PLA 40 0 40 -10% FIBER AND 90% PLA

36 4 40 9:1

50%FIBER AND 50% PLA

20 20 40 1:1

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3.3 Removal of fiber from it raw materials

The 800gram of nature fiber was been collected and put it into the 1500ml

beaker. All the nature fiber was put into the sieve. The nature fiber was been sieved

until it leaved the small pieces of fiber which the size of one particle of fiber is 8.5

micrometer. It would be the one of substances to mix it with the PLA to produce the

biodegradable plastics.

3.4 Brabender process

For the first blended 100% of PLA was used which meant 40gram of PLA.

Blended it around 10 minutes with 150 degree Celsius. After that, 90% of PLA and

10% of nature fiber was used to do this process which 4gram of nature fiber and

36gram of PLA. For this stage PLA was blended first around 2-3 minutes to make

sure the PLA was melt. Then the fiber was mixed. For the last stage, 50%-50% of

PLA and nature fiber was used. The stage two was repeated. Aim for this process

was, to make conglomeration the mixture of PLA and nature fiber before it goes

through the hot process.

3.5 Compressing

From the conglomelaration of the mixture of oil palm bunch and PLA it then will be press into a film form by using hot press machine. Each sample needs to be compress at 150 degree Celsius. Each sample takes about 10 minutes to form the film. We used mol with 15cm of width, 15cm of length and 1mm of thickness. So that, the films form will go through the ASTM STANDARDCutting process.

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3.6 ASTM STANDARD

Each film from the samples has been cut into dumb bell shapes by following the ASTM standard. The pressure we used for to make the shape was 5 tones Pa. Each sample was cut into 7 pieces to take the average reading for the tensile test. The procedure is been made in order to test the tensile strength of each sample.

3.7 Tensile test

Tensile test have been made in order to calculate the strength of the samples

test to withstand the load. Instron machine was used in this process. The three

samples had been tested and given results based on their different mixture of PLA

and fibers

3.7 BURYING

The samples that been made has been bury in order to test its biodegradability. The sample is expose to the microorganisms so that it can be decompose. Burying process took about 1 month. Each week the weight of the sample had been recorded.

3.8 Measuring the mass of samples

After a week, all the samples are retrieved to do the weighing process.Before we proceed the process, we dry it on the oven for a day to make sure all the samples fully dry. It also did because to remove all the moisture to avoid the parallax error in weighing process. The calculation is

Initial weight; X

Weight after buried; Y

X-Y = Result

3.9 To determine size of fiber particle in the experiment.

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Procedure.

1. All the apparatus was set up.2. Take the differences size of sieve(50 micrometer, 100 micrometer, 150

micrometer, 200 micrometer).3. Fill the raw oil palm bunch into the beaker until it full.4. Put the sieve in the container and fill the sieve with the raw oil palm bunch

and sieve it until it leave the small pieces of fiber.5. Collect the fiber and mix it with the PLA.6. Steps1-5 were repeated using different size.

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3.10 Burying in the different deepness

Procedure

1. All the apparatus was set up.2. First search the area that exposed to the sunlight and rain.3. Then, dig it follow the deepness as we want. For the first deep use 25 cm of deep ad

15 cm times 25 cm of area.4. Then bury the samples.5. Steps 1-4 were repeated using different deepness such as 50 cm, 75 cm and 100 cm.

4.0 Data and Results

AVERAGE FOR TENSILE TEST PURE13

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PLA

TABLE 4.1

Specimens MAX.STR(MPa)

MAX. LOAD(kN)

MAX.STN(nm)

MAX.DISP(nm) BRK.DISP(nm)MODULUS(MPa)

1 61.58 0.1541 0.7200 0.7200 1.350 1123

2 61.39 0.1586 0.7400 0.7400 1.360 996

3 61.58 0.1556 0.7700 0.7700 1.230 917

4 58.21 0.1616 0.7600 0.7600 1.110 1110

5 58.00 0.1752 0.7500 0.7500 0.870 1100

Average 300.76 / 5

60.152

0.8051 / 5

0.1610

3.7400 / 5

0.748

3.7400 / 5

0.748

5.92 / 5

1.184

5246 / 5

1094.2

AVERAGE TENSILE TEST FORTHE 90% FIBER OIL PALM BUNCH AND 10% PLA.

TABLE 4.2

Specimen MAX.STR(MPa)

MAX. LOAD(kN)

MAX.STN. (nm)

MAX.DISP(nm)

BRK.DISP(NM)

MODULUS(MPa)

1 40.360 0.1190 0.063 0.63 0.81 800.600

2 34.200 0.1180 0.065 0.65 0.65 837.700

3 37.530 0.1124 0.070 0.70 0.72 813.000

4 31.740 0.1112 0.065 0.65 0.69 810.100

5 39.370 0.0942 0.069 0.69 3.44 788.800

Average 183.2 / 5

36.64

0.5584 / 5

0.1109

0.332 / 5

0.0664

3.32 / 5

0.664

6.31 / 3

2.103

4050.2 / 3

1350.067

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GRAPH 4,2

Specimens MAX.STR(MPa)

MAX. LOAD(kN)

MAX.STN(nm)

MAX.DISP(nm)

BRK.DISP(nm)

MODULUS(MPa)

1 25.52 0.0870 0.0380 0.4600 0.4600 741.0

2 21.36 0.0766 0.0360 0.3800 0.4100 874.5

3 23.26 0.0760 0.0460 0.3600 0.3900 972.2

Average 70.14 / 3 23.38

0.2396 / 3

0.0799

0.120 / 3

0.04

1.2000 / 3

0.4

1.26 / 3

0.42

2587.7 / 3

862.566

AVERAGE TENSILE TEST FOR THE 50%FIBER OIL PALM BUNCHAND 50% PLA.

TABLE 4.3

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GRAPH 4.3

The table and the graph for the deepness of the samples in the ground

TABLE 4.4

Deepness

Week

25

cm

50

Cm

75

cm

100

cm

1 2.7350 2.7350 2.7350 2.7350

2 2.7345 2.7343 2.7340 2.7335

3 2.7339 2.7335 2.7333 2.7324

4 2.7328 2.7323 2.7319 2.7310

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Deepness buried of samples

GRAPH 4.4The table and the graph for the experiment of weight loss of biodegradable plastics(the pure PLA) in four weeks.

Weeks of bury the samples(week)

Weight of the samples(g)

1 2.52332 2.52173 2.52094 2.5197

GRAPH 4.5

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The graph and table for the experiment of weight loss of pure 90%of PLA and 10%of oil palm bunch fiber in four weeks.

Table 4.6

Weeks of bury the samples(week)

Weight of the samples(g)

1 2.7992 2.7593 2.724 2.69

Graph 4.6

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The graph and table for the experiment of weight loss of pure 50%of PLA and 50%of oil palm bunch fiber in four weeks.

Table 4.7Weeks of bury the samples

(week)Weight of the samples

(g)1 2.7992 2.7593 2.724 2.69

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Graph 4.7

The experiment for test the effect of size of the fiber particle on the biodegrade process

Size of the fiber particle(µm)Week 50 100 150 2001 2.7359 2.7450 2.7550 2.80102 2.7295 2.7432 2.7500 2.79503 2.7250 2.7400 2.7450 2.79004 2.7200 2.7385 2.7412 2.7850

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Graph 4.8 The size of the fiber particles

5.0 DISCUSSION

1. Based on the graph 4.5 the pure PLA shows the slowest rate to be

decomposed in 4 week. The average weight lost of the pure PLA every week

is 0.17. This is because the mixture between two or more biodegradable

substance influences the biodegradable characteristic.

2. From the graph of 4.6 the mixture of 10% of oil palm bunch fiber and 90%

PLA shows the lost of its weight in 4 week. It is higher the rate for the samples

to be decompose the pure PLA. From this, the experiment shows clearly the

oil palm bunch can affect time taken for the biodegradable plastics to

decompose by the microorganism I the soil.

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3. The combination 50% oil palm bunch fiber and 50%PLA show among the best

ratio to make the biodegradable plastics compared others three samples

because its can show the weight loss for decompose. From the graph 4.7 it

shows that the average weight lost is 0.25. From the observation in 4 week

the mixture of 50% oil palm bunch fiber and 50%PLA show clearly effect of it

with the environments.

4. From graph 4.3 of tensile test shows that the strength of the samples to

withstand the pressure. The combination of the 50%PLA and 50% oil palm

bunch fiber shows among the weakest among the three samples in the tensile

test. Although it is the weakest, it still can be biodegrade the fastest. The

microorganisms also affect the process of the biodegradable of the samples.

All biodegradable plastics need microorganisms to make it decompose easily.

Microorganisms depend on the deepness of soil. The more the deepness of

the soil, the more the amount of microorganism.

5. The problem or obstacles that we face on is that this project required a

suitable land for the burying and it takes a week for the process. The samples

need to be buried in land that contains a lot of microorganisms to give the

best results. Then, we suggest that the suitable soil was which soil that can be

exposed to the sunlight and rains. This is because it can give the best habitat

for the growing of microorganism, such as protozoa and many more. In order

to get the optimum result we will retrieve the samples after a week the

samples need to be weight. the samples need to be dry properly in order to

get accurate results. It also to remove all the moisture in the samples. We

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used the silica gel and oven to dry the samples. After we finished did all that

process it can be measured it weight. The samples had absorbed the water in

its environment. These make the samples to become heavier than its initial

weight.

6. This research can be upgrade or renewed by using plasticizer. Plasticizer is

the third substance in producing the samples. It can be mix when using the

Brabender machine. The reason is that to make the samples to be more

elastic and much stronger. From the tensile test results it shows that the

samples of the combination of 50% PLA and 50% oil palm fiber bunch are not

among the strongest. The main purpose of using the plasticizer is to make a

new kind of biodegradable plastics that not only can be decomposing easily

but it also can fill in the demands of the commercial needs. Further research

can be making by using plasticizer such as polycarbonate or phthalates.

6.0 Conclusion

The experiments conducted have shown that mixtures of wasted oil palm bunch

with PLA are capable to produce biodegradable plastics. All the experiments

conducted showed positive and good results. The first experiment showed the rate of

the samples to be decomposed is higher when being tested by different quantity of

oil palm bunch fiber. These prove that the oil palm bunch fiber is ideal to produced

biodegradable plastics.

The second experiment showed the rate of decompose is higher when being

tested with different deepness of the soil that the samples being buried. Table 3.

shows that ( ) the highest rate of the decomposing

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The third experiment showed the rate to the samples to be decomposed when being

tested with different size of particle of the oil palm bunch fiber. Table shows that

50µm the highest rate to be decomposed.

The fourth experiment is the tensile test, showed the strength of the samples to

withstand some pressure. Although the best samples among the three is the

weakest to withstand the pressure but it can be upgrade by using some plasticizer to

make it stronger and elastic. In this experiment, the main objective is to produce

biodegradable plastics and easily to be decomposed had been achieved. We

should certainly use the waste such as oil palm bunch fiber that is inexpensive into a

beneficial product.

7.0 APPLICATIONS AND FUTURE VALUES

Nowadays, it too many bad scary accident occurred in all this world. It will cause the critical injury to the victims and it may cause the victim break their arms or legs or others parts of body. It also will take a long time to make sure the iron in their body not suitable yet to support their injury. From that problem we an used our product to replace the iron in their body with the biodegradable iron from the oil palm bunch fiber and the micro iron, which it can biodegrade in human body without disturb their body system in a

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period time. So, it cannot harm the body system and save our budget to do the surgery again to take out the iron back,

In the future we hope that, the micro fiber iron we realize our future applications in order to help human being in this entire world, and can avoid the bad injury from happening

The future value that we can we get, we must love our self more than everything. Then, I hope my future applications can help all the people around this world.

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