I-Corps: Commercial Assessment and Development of a New Technology for Bio-sourced Nylons 11-13 Production.

I-Corps：生物来源尼龙 11-13 生产新技术的商业评估和开发。

• 批准号: 1535803
• 负责人: Kana Yamamoto
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: University of Toledo
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-07-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1535803&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Commercial; Assessment; Development; New

Owing to concerns over the depletion of fossil fuels and environmental devastation, there is growing interest in reducing and replacing petroleum feedstock for the production of commodity chemicals and materials. In particular, the production of plastics from renewable resources (bioplastics) is one of the fastest-growing materials sectors in recent years. Nylons 11 and 12 are extensively used in automotive and solar industries, and these two rapidly growing markets are expected to experience an annual growth rate that exceeds 33% through 2016. In 2012, safety-related closures of petroleum-based precursor manufacturing plants led to a serious shortage of precursor material for these two markets. Consequently, auto suppliers had to actively seek other sustainable options; including new synthetic pathways from renewable feedstock or new alternative materials. Nylon 13 is a promising, yet unexploited, material that has been reported to have properties similar to that of Nylon 12.The proposed technology enables oleic acid to be used as an economical bio-sourced feedstock for the production of Nylons 11, 12, and 13. Currently, Nylon 12 is produced from petroleum feedstock and Nylon 11 is produced from ricinoleic acid that is only available from castor beans.Over the past two years, this team has developed a new approach for the conversion of oleic acid (or oleic acid methyl ester) to Nylons 11, 12 and 13 that uses a ring-closing metathesis (RCM) step. Precursors of nylons (fatty amino acids) are currently manufactured via lengthy multi-step syntheses that produce the desired products from either a petroleum resource (Nylon 12) or from ricinoleic acid (Nylon 11) available only from castor beans. In addition, this synthetic process requires energy intensive steps involving high temperatures and pressures. In contrast, the proposed RCM method uses readily available oleic acid, and it requires fewer steps, all of which involve mild reaction conditions. Finally, the proposed approach forms fewer undesirable side-products such as isomers and oligomers (due to its mild conditions) or by-products (since all of the reagents are stoichiometric) thereby simplifying the isolation and purification of the final material.

由于对化石燃料枯竭和环境破坏的关切，人们越来越关注减少和取代石油原料用于生产商品化学品和材料。特别是，利用可再生资源（生物塑料）生产塑料是近年来增长最快的材料行业之一。尼龙11和12广泛应用于汽车和太阳能行业，预计到2016年，这两个快速增长的市场的年增长率将超过33%。2012年，以石油为基础的前体制造厂因安全问题而关闭，导致这两个市场的前体材料严重短缺。因此，汽车供应商必须积极寻求其他可持续的选择，包括从可再生原料或新的替代材料中获得新的合成途径。尼龙13是一种很有前途但尚未开发的材料，据报道，尼龙13具有与尼龙12相似的性能。所提出的技术使油酸能够用作生产尼龙11、12和13的经济的生物源原料。目前，尼龙12是由石油原料生产的，尼龙11是由蓖麻油酸生产的，蓖麻油酸只能从蓖麻籽中获得。在过去的两年里，该团队开发了一种新的方法，将油酸（或油酸甲酯）转化为尼龙11，12和13，该方法使用闭环复分解（RCM）步骤。尼龙（脂肪氨基酸）的前体目前通过冗长的多步合成来制造，所述多步合成从石油资源（尼龙12）或从仅可从蓖麻子获得的蓖麻油酸（尼龙11）产生所需的产物。此外，该合成方法需要涉及高温和高压的能量密集型步骤。相比之下，所提出的RCM方法使用容易获得的油酸，并且它需要较少的步骤，所有这些都涉及温和的反应条件。最后，所提出的方法形成更少的不期望的副产物，例如异构体和低聚物（由于其温和的条件）或副产物（由于所有试剂都是化学计量的），从而简化了最终材料的分离和纯化。