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将扩大可再生单体的生产规模，使尼龙聚酰胺具有可定制的功能特性，可用于汽车、食品和饮料包装、纺织和其他行业。这项革命性的技术将成为400亿美元尼龙聚酰胺行业的一股颠覆性力量。S的缺点，如不希望吸湿，这导致尺寸稳定性和抗拉强度的损失。这些缺点导致工业在选择材料时做出妥协；例如，长链聚酰胺用于防潮，但以牺牲所需的粘弹性为代价。拟议的生物优势单体将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过程和更清洁的环境；2)由于生物优势单体提供的平台，为创新和高性能塑料的使用提供了新的机会。预计这将在价值链的多个环节创造新的就业机会。发酵设备对农产品的需求将会增加。苏门答腊生物可再生能源公司及其合作伙伴将创造就业机会，以满足对单体生产和净化的需求。最后，聚合物生产商和制造业将生产优质产品，增加美国化学工业的竞争力。该项目的智力优势在于将发酵和化学转化相结合，生产生物优势单体及其相应的性能增强聚酰胺。廉价、稳健、高效的单体生产工艺与生物优势单体的可定制性相结合，生产出疏水、阻燃、防静电或其他可定制的尼龙衍生物，为满足制造业的许多需求提供了机会。创新?S的成功取决于单体生产过程，该过程利用了接近100%效率的廉价电化学转换，并且只使用水作为反应物和电力作为能源。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，在单体生产完成后，只需要进行分离纯化，从而节省了巨大的成本。实验室测试的疏水尼龙样品表现同样好干尼龙，但没有水分敏感的缺点。该项目将使苏门答腊生物可再生能源过渡到连续流、公斤级生产过程，并为潜在客户提供性能测试样品。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.