SBIR Phase I: Expanding the Sustainability of Bio-plastics and PLA by Postponing End-of-Life through the use of Reactive Extrusion Chemistries

SBIR 第一阶段：通过使用反应挤出化学物质推迟使用寿命，扩大生物塑料和 PLA 的可持续性

• 批准号: 1215292
• 负责人: Adam Pawloski
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: Interfacial Solutions LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-07-01 至 2012-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1215292&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Expanding; Sustainability; Bio

This Small Business Innovation Phase I project proposes to address the issue of end-of-life management of a family of bioplastics, specifically polylactic acid (PLA). The majority of products today manufactured from PLA are land filled or incinerated once reaching their end of life. Although PLA is a compostable bioplastic, there is a significant lack of industrial composting infrastructure in the United States. Furthermore, PLA is not typically recycled due to a significant loss of mechanical properties during reprocessing of the plastic. In the proposed work, a reactive extrusion process will be used to recycle waste PLA to produce hyperbranched PLA polymers. Hyperbranched PLA exhibits mechanical properties that are improved relative to virgin, linear PLA. The reactive extrusion process to impart hyperbranching is cost-effective and scalable, enabling a viable business to sell recycled PLA and license the process technology to other processors. The proposed research will demonstrate how both post-industrial and post-consumer waste PLA can be converted into hyperbranched PLAs having improved mechanical properties. This process will significantly enhance the value of scrap PLA, by converting a waste stream into a product. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is the development and commercialization of an important, novel, and cost effective way to meet the pressing need of making plastics more sustainable by adding value to the most broadly used bioplastic, PLA. Creating improved mechanical property PLAs from a lower cost feedstock will ultimately expand commercial applications. The current U.S. market for PLA is approximately 300 million pounds and growing at approximately 15% annually. Commercial plastic processors that use PLA will be able to replace or supplement use of virgin PLA with recycled PLA. Additionally, by providing a commercially-attractive method to recycle PLA, this new process will effectively incentivize recyclers to remove PLA from their waste sources. The only current competitive technology for recycling PLA is to use existing polymer recycling processes without hyperbranching, but these methods are unable to provide recycled materials with useful properties. Other options for reclaiming PLA include composting and chemical recycling back to lactic acid. Both of these technologies offer a reasonable way to dispose of PLA at its end of life; however, only recycling of PLA by hyperbranching offers a way to significantly extend the end of life.

这个小企业创新第一阶段项目旨在解决一系列生物塑料（特别是聚乳酸（PLA））的寿命终止管理问题。今天，大多数由PLA制造的产品在达到其使用寿命后都会被填埋或焚烧。虽然PLA是一种可堆肥的生物塑料，但美国严重缺乏工业堆肥基础设施。 此外，由于在塑料的再加工过程中机械性能的显著损失，PLA通常不被回收。 在拟议的工作中，反应挤出过程将被用来回收废聚乳酸生产超支化聚乳酸聚合物。 超支化PLA表现出相对于原始的线性PLA改善的机械性能。 赋予超支化的反应性挤出工艺具有成本效益和可扩展性，使可行的企业能够销售回收的PLA并将工艺技术许可给其他加工商。拟议的研究将展示如何将工业后和消费后的废弃PLA转化为具有改善的机械性能的超支化PLA。这一过程将通过将废物流转化为产品，显著提高废聚乳酸的价值。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发和商业化一种重要的、新颖的、具有成本效益的方法，通过增加最广泛使用的生物塑料PLA的价值来满足使塑料更具可持续性的迫切需求。 从较低成本的原料中产生改善的机械性能的PLA将最终扩大商业应用。 目前美国PLA市场约为3亿磅，每年增长约15%。 使用PLA的商业塑料加工商将能够用回收的PLA替代或补充使用原生PLA。此外，通过提供一种具有商业吸引力的方法来回收PLA，这种新工艺将有效地激励回收商从废物源中去除PLA。 目前回收PLA的唯一有竞争力的技术是使用现有的聚合物回收工艺而不超支化，但这些方法无法为回收材料提供有用的性能。回收PLA的其他选择包括堆肥和化学回收回到乳酸。 这两种技术都提供了一种合理的方法来处理PLA的寿命结束;然而，只有通过超支化回收PLA提供了一种显着延长寿命结束的方法。