I-Corps: From Soybean Oil to Commodity Biobased Fatty Alcohols and Vinyl Monomers

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is across applications in the areas of surfactants, detergents, personal cares, lubricants, adhesives and coatings. The success of this project is directly related with the reduction of carbon footprint in commodity products to complement or replace petrochemical-based counterparts. The utilization of soybean oil as raw materials would promote the industry application of soybean oil and directly benefit U.S. agriculture and farmers. The project will impact the markets of specialty chemicals and polymer emulsion. This I-Corps project addresses a long lasting goal of converting soybean oil into sustainable, green fatty alcohols and vinyl monomers. The key technological advance is the use of a base-catalyzed amidation reaction to transform triglycerides into fatty amide alcohols under an environmentally friendly, one-pot wet chemistry process, circumventing the use of hydrogenation at high pressure with hydrogen gas that is usually practiced in the current manufacturing of industry. Further derivatization into vinyl monomers also warrants the use of solvent-free and high conversion processes that are competitive with petrochemical-based vinyl monomers in terms of cost and environmental concerns as well as add-on unique properties. This project will be exploring the needs from industry and seeking feedback for re-designing chemistry and compositions of fatty alcohol and vinyl monomers toward large-scale production and business success.