MRI: Acquisition of Instrumentation for Interdisciplinary Research and Training on Production and Characterization of Bio-based Adhesives from Swine Manure

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1040246FiniThis proposal requests funding for a high pressure reactor, a pressurized blister test and an optical Wilhelmy device to produce bio-adhesives through chemical modification and polymerization of bio-oil obtained from hydrothermal processing of swine manure. Swine manure will be converted to biomonomers by hydrolysis and then further converted by chemical synthesis to biodegradable polymers like polylactic acid. Preliminary results showed hydrothermal processing of swine manure can be used to produce bio-adhesive; however, due to its low viscosity and shear modulus, the resultant adhesive can only be used as partial replacement for petroleum based adhesives. To engineer bio-adhesive to be used as a stand alone adhesive further processing is needed. To do so, vacuum distillation and chemical processing followed by polymerization of bio-adhesive will be used to develop adhesives with desired mechanical and rheological properties for applications in construction and packaging industries. Therefore, the 5.3 million tons of swine manure produced in the U.S. annually can supply around four million barrels of bio-adhesive to be used in construction of joints in concrete panels, adhesive anchorage systems, highway and airport asphalt pavements, roofing, industrial carpeting, packaging, installation of highway delineators, and soil stabilization.