Bio-fabrication of sustainable functional bacterial cellulose aerogel for building insulation

用于建筑隔热的可持续功能性细菌纤维素气凝胶的生物制造

• 批准号: EP/X02041X/1
• 负责人: Yunhong Jiang
• 金额: $ 31.83万
• 依托单位: Northumbria University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FX02041X%2F1
• 关键词: Bio; fabrication; sustainable; functional; bacterial

Climate change is undoubtedly the greatest challenge of our generation. The World Green Building Council is catalysing the construction and property industry to lead the transition to a net zero carbon-built environment. In the UK, the operation of buildings accounts for around 30 percent of emissions, mainly from heating, cooling and electricity use. Heating and cooling in buildings accounts for over 10% of global energy consumption. There is an increasing emphasis on energy efficiency and cutting carbon emissions from our homes and workplaces. The UK Government is keen to see energy efficiency in buildings improved and various initiatives and schemes offered for insulating domestic homes for building energy improvements. However, industrial synthetic insulation materials, such as polystyrene and polyurethane, dominate the building insulation industry. They are oil based polymerised polystyrene and the manufacturing of those materials is an energy intensive process. Moreover, all the synthetic insulation foams are not vapour permeable, which can cause dampness as well as decay in the wall. Some of them will release toxic hydrogen cyanide and isocyanates during a fire. Although interest in the use of bio-based insulation products is steadily increasing, the efficient thermal insulation renewable or biobased materials such as wood chips and sheep wools and recycled paper are generally inferior to that of fossil fuel-based materials such as expanded polystyrene and polyurethane foams. To meet the demand for a sustainable and net zero carbon building industry, there is a pressing need for innovative insulation materials that would facilitate low energy consumption and a minimal impact on the environment. This NIA proposal is to make breakthroughs in how to use renewable and degradable resources to replace petroleum derivatives production technology, reduce environmental damage, and achieve sustainable development. This proposal is a first step to transform the manufacture of building insulating materials using biotechnology to develop novel cellulose-based aerogel to reduce fossil energy demand and contribute to net zero carbon buildings. The fundamental challenge is to develop novel low cost and low energy intensive ambient drying methods to produce functional bacterial cellulose aerogels with flame retardant, insulation, and anti-bacterial properties, which will have key applications in the field of construction materials. The low cost and low energy intensive drying method using sodium bicarbonate will be studied. The effect of the processing and in particular, the challenges related to the removal of the solvent to generate low-density foams and aerogels on heat transfer properties will be investigated. An In-situ adaptive modification approach will be applied to address the challenges for using bacterial cellulose aerogel by incorporating functional chitosan in building insulation applications to provide the desired photo-catalytic self-cleaning, antibacterial and flame retardant properties. The interdisciplinary nature of proposal will build a real network for Bioengineering, building physics and Industry partners to work together and conduct research outside of their own discipline area to create a new generation of renewable and degradable bio-cellulose aerogel for energy efficient building. This research is currently at proof-of-concept stage and has high potential for impact with a wide array of applications in the future. This approach will enable the manufacture of insulation materials utilising waste, with little energy input and in ways which are carbon sequestering and non-polluting. It has enormous potential to produce renewable thermally insulating materials with significantly better heat transport properties than the currently commercially dominating materials such as expanded polystyrene, polyurethane foams, and glass wool.

气候变化无疑是我们这一代人面临的最大挑战。世界绿色建筑理事会正在推动建筑和房地产行业向净零碳建筑环境过渡。在英国，建筑物的运行约占排放量的30%，主要来自供暖、制冷和用电。建筑物的供暖和制冷占全球能源消耗的10%以上。人们越来越重视能源效率和减少家庭和工作场所的碳排放。英国政府热切希望看到建筑物的能源效率得到提高，并提出各种倡议和计划，为住宅提供隔热，以改善建筑物的能源。然而，工业合成绝缘材料，如聚苯乙烯和聚氨酯，主导着建筑绝缘行业。它们是油基聚合聚苯乙烯，这些材料的制造是一个能源密集型过程。此外，所有的合成绝缘泡沫都不是蒸汽渗透性的，这可能会导致潮湿以及墙壁的腐烂。其中一些会在火灾中释放有毒的氰化氢和异氰酸酯。虽然对使用生物基隔热产品的兴趣正在稳步增加，但有效的隔热可再生或生物基材料，如木屑和羊毛和再生纸，通常不如化石燃料基材料，如发泡聚苯乙烯和聚氨酯泡沫。为了满足可持续和净零碳建筑行业的需求，迫切需要创新的隔热材料，以促进低能耗和对环境的影响最小。NIA的这一建议是在如何利用可再生和可降解资源替代石油衍生物生产技术，减少环境破坏，实现可持续发展方面取得突破。该提案是利用生物技术改造建筑绝缘材料制造的第一步，以开发新型纤维素基气凝胶，以减少化石能源需求，并为净零碳建筑做出贡献。根本的挑战是开发新的低成本和低能耗的环境干燥方法，以生产具有阻燃，绝缘和抗菌性能的功能性细菌纤维素气凝胶，这将在建筑材料领域具有关键应用。研究了低成本、低能耗的碳酸氢钠干燥方法。将研究加工的效果，特别是与去除溶剂以产生低密度泡沫和气凝胶对传热性能的影响有关的挑战。一种原位自适应改性方法将被应用于解决使用细菌纤维素气凝胶的挑战，通过将功能性壳聚糖引入建筑隔热应用中，以提供所需的光催化自清洁，抗菌和阻燃性能。该提案的跨学科性质将为生物工程建立一个真实的网络，建筑物理和工业合作伙伴共同努力，在自己的学科领域之外进行研究，以创造新一代可再生和可降解的生物纤维素气凝胶，用于节能建筑。这项研究目前处于概念验证阶段，具有很高的影响潜力，在未来有广泛的应用。这种方法将使利用废物制造绝缘材料成为可能，只需很少的能源投入，并且采用碳螯合和无污染的方式。它具有巨大的潜力来生产可再生的隔热材料，其热传输性能明显优于目前商业上占主导地位的材料，如发泡聚苯乙烯，聚氨酯泡沫和玻璃棉。

项目成果

Advancing pressure sensors performance through a flexible MXene embedded interlocking structure in a microlens array

• DOI: 10.1007/s12274-023-5727-6
• 发表时间: 2023-05
• 期刊: Nano Research
• 影响因子: 9.9
• 作者: Tong Li;Zhenzong Xu;B. Xu;Zhanhu Guo;Yunhong Jiang;Xuehua Zhang;M. Bayati;T. Liu;Yan-Hua Liu

A Simple and Effective Physical Ball-Milling Strategy to Prepare Super-Tough and Stretchable PVA@MXene@PPy Hydrogel for Flexible Capacitive Electronics.

• DOI: 10.1002/smll.202303038
• 发表时间: 2023-07
• 期刊: Small
• 影响因子: 13.3
• 作者: Zipeng Qin;Gang Zhao;Yaoyang Zhang;Zhiheng Gu;Yuhan Tang;J. T. Aladejana;Junna Ren;Yunhong Jiang;Zhanhu Guo;Xiangfang Peng;Xuehua Zhang;B. Xu;Tingjie Chen

A Cellulose/Chitosan Dual Cross-Linked Multifunctional and Resilient Hydrogel for Emergent Open Wound Management.

用于紧急开放性伤口处理的纤维素/壳聚糖双交联多功能弹性水凝胶。

• DOI: 10.1002/adhm.202304676
• 发表时间: 2024
• 期刊: Advanced healthcare materials
• 影响因子: 10
• 作者: Lu S

Vanillin Cross-Linked Chitosan Film with Controlled Release of Green Tea Polyphenols for Active Food Packaging.

• DOI: 10.1021/acsfoodscitech.3c00222
• 发表时间: 2023-10-20
• 期刊: ACS FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
• 作者: Westlake, Jessica R;Laabei, Maisem;Jiang, Yunhong;Yew, Wen Chyin;Smith, Darren L;Burrows, Andrew D;Xie, Ming
• 通讯作者: Xie, Ming