SBIR Phase I: Bio-Advantaged Monomers for the Production of Function-Tailorable Polyamides

该小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目扩大了可再生单体的生产，从而获得具有可定制功能特性的高性能尼龙聚酰胺，用于汽车，食品饮料包装，纺织品和其他行业。革命性的技术将是一个颠覆性的力量，以400亿美元的尼龙聚酰胺行业解决尼龙？的弱点，如不希望的水分吸收，这会导致尺寸稳定性和拉伸强度的损失。这些缺点导致工业在选择材料时做出妥协;例如，较长链的聚酰胺用于防潮，但以牺牲所需的粘弹性为代价。拟议的生物降解单体将1）有助于减轻对石油基化学品的依赖，从而实现更绿色的生产工艺和更清洁的环境，2）由于生物降解单体提供的平台，为创新和使用高性能塑料提供了新的机会。预计这将在价值链的多个环节创造新的就业机会。发酵设施对农产品的需求将增加。Sumatra Biorenewables及其合作伙伴将创造就业机会，以满足单体生产和纯化的需求。最后，聚合物生产商和制造业将生产出上级产品，提高美国化学工业的竞争力。该项目的智力价值是将发酵和化学转化结合起来，用于生产生物降解单体及其相应的性能增强聚酰胺。廉价、稳健和有效的单体生产方法与生物可降解单体的可定制性质相结合，以产生疏水、阻燃、抗静电或以其他方式可定制的尼龙衍生物，提供了满足制造业中许多需求的机会。创新？的成功取决于单体生产过程，该过程利用廉价的电化学转化，其效率接近100%，并且仅使用水作为反应物和电力作为能源。此外，单体生产工艺对原料来源和发酵液中存在的杂质不敏感。因此，在单体生产之后才需要分离和纯化，从而节省了巨大的成本。经实验测试的疏水尼龙样品与干尼龙的性能相同，但没有湿度敏感性的缺点。该项目将使Sumatra Biorenewables过渡到连续流，公斤级，生产过程和供应样品的性能测试的潜在客户。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project scales the production of renewable monomers that give access to performance nylon polyamides with tailorable functional properties for applications in the automotive, food & beverage packaging, textiles, and other industries. The revolutionary technology will be a disruptive force to the $40 billion nylon polyamide industry by addressing nylon?s weaknesses such as undesired moisture adsorption, which results in loss of dimensional stability and tensile strength. These shortcomings lead industries to make compromises in selecting their materials; for instance, longer chain polyamides are used for moisture resistance but at the expense of desired viscoelastic properties. The proposed bio-advantaged monomers will 1) help ease reliance on petroleum-based chemicals resulting in greener production processes and a cleaner environment, 2) present new opportunities for innovation and use of performance plastics due to the platform that bio-advantaged monomers offer. This is expected to generate new jobs at multiple points in the value chain. Demand for agricultural goods by fermentation facilities will increase. Sumatra Biorenewables and its partners will create jobs to meet demand for monomer production and purification. Finally, polymer producers and the manufacturing industry will produce superior products, increasing the competitiveness of the U.S. chemical industry.The intellectual merit of this project is to combine fermentation and chemical conversion for the production of bio-advantaged monomers and their corresponding performance-enhanced polyamides. The inexpensive, robust, and efficient monomer production process in conjunction with the customizable nature of bio-advantaged monomers to yield nylon derivatives that are hydrophobic, flame retardant, anti-static, or otherwise tailorable, afford opportunities to meet a number of needs in the manufacturing sector. The innovation?s success hinges on a monomer production process that utilizes an inexpensive electrochemical conversion that operates near 100% efficiency and that only uses water as a reactant and electricity as an energy source. In addition, the monomer production process is insensitive to the feedstock source and the impurities present in fermentation broths. Therefore, separation and purification is only required after monomer production, resulting in huge cost savings. Laboratory-tested samples of hydrophobic nylon perform equally well as dry nylon, but without the disadvantage of moisture sensitivity. This project will enable Sumatra Biorenewables to transition to a continuous flow, kilogram-scale, production process and supply potential customers with samples for performance testing.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.