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

由于担心矿物燃料的枯竭和环境的破坏，人们越来越关心减少和取代石油原料以生产商品化学品和材料。特别是，从可再生资源（生物塑料）生产塑料是近年来增长最快的材料部门之一。尼龙11和尼龙12广泛用于汽车和太阳能行业，这两个快速增长的市场预计到2016年将经历超过33%的年增长率。2012年，石油基前体制造工厂因安全原因关闭，导致这两个市场的前体材料严重短缺。因此，汽车供应商不得不积极寻求其他可持续的选择；包括新的合成途径，从可再生原料或新的替代材料。尼龙13是一种有前途的，但尚未开发的材料，据报道具有类似尼龙12的性质。所提出的技术使油酸能够用作生产尼龙11、尼龙12和尼龙13的经济生物原料。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豆中获得。在过去的两年中，该团队开发了一种新的方法，通过闭合环复分解（RCM）步骤将油酸（或油酸甲酯）转化为尼龙11,12和13。尼龙的前体（脂肪酸）目前是通过漫长的多步骤合成来制造的，从石油资源（尼龙12）或从蓖麻豆中提取的蓖麻油酸（尼龙11）中生产所需的产品。此外，这种合成过程需要涉及高温和高压的能源密集型步骤。相比之下，所提出的RCM方法使用容易获得的油酸，需要的步骤更少，所有的反应条件都很温和。最后，所提出的方法形成较少的不良副产物，如异构体和低聚物（由于其温和的条件）或副产物（因为所有的试剂都是化学计量的），从而简化了最终物质的分离和纯化。

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.