Development of continuous process for producing cellulose nanocrystal from tunicates.

开发从被囊类动物生产纤维素纳米晶体的连续工艺。

• 批准号: 555748-2020
• 负责人: Acharya, Bishnu
• 金额: $ 9.11万
• 依托单位: University of Prince Edward Island
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Idea to Innovation
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=706066
• 关键词: Development; continuous; process; producing; cellulose

Prince Edward Island is the largest producer of mussels and is exported worldwide generating significant revenue to rural communities. This however has been challenged by the infestation of tunicates. Tunicates is a marine invertebrates which grows quickly to disrupt the growth of the mussels affecting the yield and the quality. PEI mussel growers came up with an expensive way of tackling the issues that led to an increased cost of mussel production by 15-25%. Understanding that the tunicates could be a source for high quality cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), the applicant previously has developed a process for the conversion of tunicates to CNC and studied its morphology and physicochemical properties. The tunicates-CNC posses unique characteristics such as higher crystallinity, higher aspect ratio, and higher modulus compared to state-of-the-art plant-CNC currently available in the market and thus, better suited for reinforcement application in lightweight materials. The hybrid i.e. Tunicate-CNC and Plant-CNC, has shown to have better mechanical and physiochemical properties, opening new area of application for Tunicate-CNC where Plant-CNC is currently used. While the properties of T-CNC outperform the P-CNC, the scalable production of T-CNC doesn't exist. The proposed research is focused on developing a scalable prototype for continuous production of CNC from tunicates. The research will integrate intermediate steps previously validated at laboratory scale and optimize the key process variables for continuous production. The success of the project will be threefold: a) It will provide an alternative revenue generation for the mussel growers b) Develop new product with unique properties that compliments with the leadership taken by Canada in the area of cellulose nanocrystals c) Opportunities for new business in the area of processing and application of tunicates-CNC.

爱德华王子岛是最大的贻贝生产地，出口到世界各地，为农村社区带来了可观的收入。然而，这受到了被囊动物侵扰的挑战。被囊动物是一种生长迅速的海洋无脊椎动物，它会破坏贻贝的生长，影响贻贝的产量和质量。PEI贻贝种植者提出了一种昂贵的方法来解决导致贻贝生产成本增加15- 25%的问题。理解到被囊动物可以是高质量纤维素纳米晶体（CNC）的来源，申请人先前已经开发了将被囊动物转化为CNC的方法，并研究了其形态和物理化学性质。与目前市场上最先进的植物CNC相比，被囊体CNC具有独特的特性，例如更高的结晶度，更高的纵横比和更高的模量，因此更适合于轻质材料的增强应用。Tunicate-CNC和Plant-CNC的混合物已被证明具有更好的机械和理化性能，为目前使用Plant-CNC的Tunicate-CNC开辟了新的应用领域。虽然T-CNC的性能优于P-CNC，但T-CNC的可扩展生产并不存在。 拟议的研究的重点是开发一个可扩展的原型连续生产的数控从被囊动物。该研究将整合先前在实验室规模验证的中间步骤，并优化连续生产的关键工艺变量。该项目的成功将有三个方面：a）它将为贻贝种植者提供另一种创收方式B）开发具有独特性能的新产品，以补充加拿大在纤维素纳米晶体领域的领导地位c）在被囊藻-CNC加工和应用领域的新业务机会。