Lowering the Energy Demand and Broadening the Scope of Renewable Polymer Manufacture

降低能源需求并扩大可再生聚合物生产范围

• 批准号: EP/M013952/1
• 负责人: SM Howdle
• 金额: $ 38.05万
• 依托单位: University of Nottingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2015 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FM013952%2F1
• 关键词: Lowering; Energy; Demand; Broadening; Scope

Our society is completely dependent upon polymers (plastics) in every facet of our lives; from clothes to computers to novel composites and cosmetics. But this brings problems. In 2010 every citizen of the USA discarded 140 kg of plastic into land-fill; and those figures are rising across the globe. As more of the World's economies move towards Western levels, we simply will not be able to continue to use polymers in the same way, nor will our oil reserves provide sufficient raw materials with security of supply. There are alternatives, derived from renewable resources, and these can also lead to degradable polymers that could have a significant positive impact and could help solve the issues of landfill. But despite all the hype and expectation, renewables currently account for less than 5% of all polymers. One of the major routes to achieving better market penetration of renewable polymers is to lower the price, and one of the biggest fixed costs is in the energy required to carry out the polymerisation reactions that make these polymers on the commercial scale. Our industry partners have told us clearly that lowering the energy costs and shaving off a just a few pence per kg of the overall cost of the polymer would have a dramatic effect on their ability to sell more renewable polymers into the marketplace.Our project addresses this issue directly and focuses on new energy efficient polymerisations. Our approach is novel, using high pressure carbon dioxide as a processing aid to enhance polymerisations at lower temperatures. If successful we will achieve not only significant energy savings, but also, by using lower temperatures, we will open up a completely new range of polymer properties, such as increased heat resistance and enhanced mechanical properties that have not been easily accessible before, and certainly cannot be achieved through the traditional high temperature commercial processes. This project will tackle both the technical and engineering aspects around the use of high pressure carbon dioxide in polymerisation reactions and will provide new approaches to overcoming the key hurdles that are currently preventing larger scale manufacture of renewable polymers. Our project will also produce valuable life cycle and energy consumption data on our new process. These data will be useful in helping our industry partners to build a credible business case for utilising high pressure carbon dioxide to improve their processes and polymer products.

我们的社会在我们生活的各个方面都完全依赖聚合物（塑料）;从衣服到电脑到新型复合材料和化妆品。但这带来了问题。2010年，每个美国公民丢弃了140公斤的塑料垃圾;这个数字在地球仪上还在上升。随着世界上越来越多的经济体向西方的水平发展，我们将无法继续以同样的方式使用聚合物，我们的石油储备也无法提供足够的原材料。有来自可再生资源的替代品，这些也可以产生可降解的聚合物，这可能会产生重大的积极影响，并有助于解决垃圾填埋问题。但是，尽管有所有的炒作和期望，可再生能源目前占所有聚合物的不到5%。实现可再生聚合物更好的市场渗透的主要途径之一是降低价格，而最大的固定成本之一是在商业规模上进行制造这些聚合物的聚合反应所需的能量。我们的行业合作伙伴已经明确告诉我们，降低能源成本和削减每公斤聚合物总成本的几便士将对他们向市场销售更多可再生聚合物的能力产生巨大影响。我们的项目直接解决这个问题，并专注于新的节能聚合。我们的方法是新颖的，使用高压二氧化碳作为加工助剂，以提高聚合在较低的温度。如果成功，我们不仅将实现显著的节能，而且通过使用较低的温度，我们将开辟一个全新的聚合物性能范围，例如增加耐热性和增强机械性能，这些在以前是不容易获得的，当然也不能通过传统的高温商业工艺实现。该项目将解决在聚合反应中使用高压二氧化碳的技术和工程方面的问题，并将提供新的方法来克服目前阻碍可再生聚合物大规模生产的关键障碍。我们的项目还将为我们的新工艺提供宝贵的生命周期和能源消耗数据。这些数据将有助于我们的行业合作伙伴建立一个可靠的商业案例，利用高压二氧化碳来改进他们的工艺和聚合物产品。

项目成果

New renewably-sourced polyesters from limonene-derived monomers

• DOI: 10.1039/c8gc02957a
• 发表时间: 2019-01
• 期刊: Green Chemistry
• 影响因子: 9.8
• 作者: Megan R. Thomsett;Jonathan C. Moore;A. Buchard;R. Stockman;S. Howdle

Can a combination of poly(ethylene glycol) and dense phase carbon dioxide improve processing of polylactide? A high pressure rheology investigation

聚乙二醇和密相二氧化碳的组合能否改善聚丙交酯的加工？

• DOI: 10.1016/j.supflu.2017.10.014
• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: The Journal of Supercritical Fluids
• 作者: Pepper K

Controlled polymerisation and purification of branched poly(lactic acid) surfactants in supercritical carbon dioxide

• DOI: 10.1039/c6gc00745g
• 发表时间: 2016-01-01
• 期刊: GREEN CHEMISTRY
• 影响因子: 9.8
• 作者: Goddard, Amy R.;Perez-Nieto, Sara;Howdle, Steven M.
• 通讯作者: Howdle, Steven M.

Low-temperature and purification-free stereocontrolled ring-opening polymerisation of lactide in supercritical carbon dioxide

超临界二氧化碳中丙交酯的低温免纯化立体控制开环聚合

• DOI: 10.1039/d0gc00352b
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: Green Chemistry
• 影响因子: 9.8
• 作者: Bassett S