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

这个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规模，使其能够获得汽车、食品饮料包装、纺织和其他行业中应用的具有可定制功能特性的高性能尼龙聚酰胺。这项革命性的技术将对价值400亿美元的尼龙聚酰胺行业产生颠覆性的影响，解决尼龙？S的弱点，如不受欢迎的吸湿性，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，但以所需的粘弹性性能为代价。建议的生物优势单体将1)帮助减少对以石油为基础的化学品的依赖，从而实现更绿色的生产过程和更清洁的环境，2)由于生物优势单体提供的平台，为高性能塑料的创新和使用提供了新的机会。预计这将在价值链的多个点创造新的就业机会。发酵设施对农产品的需求将会增加。苏门答腊岛生物可再生能源公司及其合作伙伴将创造就业机会，以满足单体生产和提纯的需求。最后，聚合物生产商和制造业将生产出优势产品，增加美国化学工业的竞争力。该项目的智力优势是将发酵和化学转化相结合，生产具有生物优势的单体及其相应的性能增强型聚酰胺。廉价、坚固和高效的单体生产工艺与生物优势单体的可定制化特性相结合，可生产疏水、阻燃、抗静电或其他可裁剪的尼龙衍生物，为满足制造业的多种需求提供了机会。创新是什么？S的成功取决于一种单体生产工艺，该工艺利用廉价的电化学转化，效率接近100%，并且只使用水作为反应物，使用电力作为能源。此外，单体生产过程对原料来源和发酵液中存在的杂质不敏感。因此，只需在单体生产后进行分离和纯化，从而节省了巨大的成本。实验室测试的疏水尼龙样品的性能与干尼龙一样好，但没有潮湿敏感性的缺点。该项目将使苏门答腊岛的生物可再生能源能够过渡到连续流动、千克规模的生产流程，并为潜在客户提供用于性能测试的样品。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.