Sustainable polymers

年产量超过1.5亿吨的大宗聚合物中，90%以上来自原油。在英国，聚合物行业直接雇佣了28.6万名员工，年销售额为181亿GB，占英国GDP的2.1%。它每年生产约250万吨聚合物，并以每年2.5%的速度增长。英国是欧盟前五大聚合物生产国之一，对英国经济的出口额为46亿GB。这些聚合物在日常生活中普遍存在，并有许多应用，包括：医疗、交通、电气、建筑和包装；后者占所有聚合物产量的三分之一以上。这种依赖石化产品生产聚合物的做法存在环境和经济风险，随着原油供应枯竭，这种依赖最终将变得不可持续。因此，有充分的理由开发利用可再生资源生产聚合物的新工艺，对于英国来说，这种资源不能与食品生产竞争。二氧化碳是一种特别有前景的可再生资源，特别是利用发电站、化工厂、水泥和金属厂等来源的废二氧化碳。该项目的总体目标是开发将废生物质和二氧化碳转化为商品聚合物(2011年全球产量2.8亿吨)所需的化学和工程技术，特别是：聚烷烃、聚醚、聚酯、聚碳酸酯和聚氨酯。关键的反应途径是从生物质到烯烃(可聚合到聚烷烃)到环氧化物，这些环氧化物可以聚合成聚醚或共聚生成聚酯或聚碳酸酯。这些可以进一步反应，以生产适用于家具、绝缘和胶粘剂应用的聚氨酯。为了可持续，烯烃和其他反应物也必须可持续地来源，我们将调查从农林废物中获得的萜烯、糖衍生物和不饱和酸衍生物的使用情况。例如，在2011-2012年生长季，欧盟处理了190万公吨柑橘，产生了大约950,000公吨废物。除去水后，剩下19万公吨的残留物，其中约14,000公吨的柠檬烯可被分离出来用作聚合物原料。除了进行所需的化学研究外，还将进行必要的工程，将合成扩大到中试和生产规模。从生物质中分离材料并将其转化为聚合物的化学和机械过程将不可避免地需要能源和其他化学品，而这些化学品的生产将产生二氧化碳。因此，生命周期分析将被用来确定与石化和生物质来源的聚合物生产相关的所有二氧化碳排放。数据的比较将提供一个定量的理解，即可持续路线比石化路线好得多，并将说明合成的哪些方面应对大部分二氧化碳排放负责。这一点，再加上能源使用和成本数据，将使项目团队能够集中精力通过使用微波加热而不是传统加热，以及使用超临界二氧化碳等替代溶剂来将这些排放降至最低。总而言之，聚合物在日常生活中无处不在，聚合物行业是英国的主要雇主。它们的生产规模和应用范围意味着它们是从化石资源转向可持续资源的高度优先目标。该项目的成功完成将保护英国的就业机会，保护英国这些基本材料的供应，并通过与海外制造商的许可协议提供收入。

Over 90% of bulk polymers with a production volume of greater than 150 million tonnes per annum are sourced from crude oil. Within the UK, the polymers industry directly employs 286,000 people and has annual sales of £18.1 billion which accounts for 2.1% of UK GDP. It produces around 2.5 million tonnes of polymer every year and is achieving an annual growth of 2.5%. The UK is in the top 5 polymer producers in the EU and its exports are worth £4.6 billion to the UK economy.These polymers are ubiquitous in everyday life and have many applications including: medical, transport, electrical, construction and packaging; the latter accounting for over a third of all polymers produced. This dependence on petrochemicals for polymer production has environmental and economic risks and will, ultimately, become unsustainable as supplies of crude oil become exhausted. Therefore, there are good reasons to develop new processes for polymer production using renewable resources and for the UK, such resources must not compete with food production. Carbon dioxide is a particularly promising renewable resource, especially the use of waste carbon dioxide from sources such as power stations, chemical plants, cement and metal works.The overall aim of this project is to develop the chemistry and engineering required to transform waste biomass and carbon dioxide into commodity polymers (2011 global production 280 million metric tonnes), specifically: polyalkanes, polyethers, polyesters, polycarbonates and polyurethanes. The key reaction pathway is from biomass to alkenes (polymerizable to polyalkanes) to epoxides which can be polymerized to polyethers or copolymerized to produce polyesters or polycarbonates. These can be further reacted to produce polyurethanes suitable for applications in furniture, insulation and adhesives. For this to be sustainable, the alkene and other reactants must also be sustainably sourced and we will investigate the use of terpenes, sugar derivatives and unsaturated acid derivatives obtained from agricultural and forestry waste. For example, during the 2011-2012 growing season, the EU processed 1.9 million metric tonnes of citrus producing approximately 950,000 metric tonnes of waste. After removal of water this left 190,000 metric tonnes of residue from which about 14,000 metric tonnes of limonene could be isolated for use as a polymer feedstock. In addition to carrying out the required chemical research, the engineering necessary to scale up the syntheses to pilot plant and production scale will be carried out.The chemical and mechanical processes associated with isolating materials from biomass and converting them into polymers will inevitably require energy and other chemicals, the production of which will generate carbon dioxide. Therefore, lifecycle analysis will be used to determine all of the carbon dioxide emissions associated with polymer production from both petrochemical and biomass sources. Comparison of the data will provide a quantitative understanding of how much better the sustainable route is than the petrochemical route and will illustrate which aspects of the synthesis are responsible for most of the carbon dioxide emissions. This, combined with energy usage and cost data will allow the project team to concentrate their efforts on minimising these emissions through for example the use of microwave heating rather than conventional heating and the use of alternative solvents such as supercritical carbon dioxide.In summary, polymers are ubiquitous in everyday life and the polymer industry is a major UK employer. Their scale of production and range of applications means that they are a high priority target to switch from fossil to sustainable sourcing. Successful completion of this project will protect UK jobs, protect the UK supply of these essential materials and provide income through license agreements with overseas manufacturers.