Bio-renewable chemicals and smart materials derived from non-edible biomass

生物炼油厂是成功过渡到从生物质生产可持续化学品和材料的关键。理想情况下，生物炼油厂应该是灵活的，并使用多种转化过程从农业、森林和城市残留物中生产各种燃料、化学品和材料。乙醇是平台化学品的一个例子，这种平台化学品可以从生物精炼厂获得。 呋喃类平台化合物(如羟甲基呋喃(HMF)、2，5-二甲基呋喃(DFF)、呋喃-2，5-二元酸(FDCA))是一类用于生产燃料、溶剂、药品和生物聚合物的化合物。尽管在合成这些平台化学品方面取得了进展，但它们的生产仍面临一些挑战，包括成本高、产生废物、催化效率低、一些呋喃类化学品(如HMF)不稳定以及生产不连续。呋喃化学品目前主要由果糖和葡萄糖合成，因此需要低成本原料才能实现有利可图和可持续的商业规模生产。 因此，该计划的目标是1)开发一种新的生物精炼策略，将食物残渣转化为高价值的呋喃平台化学品；2)开发用于沸腾床反应器的多相生物催化系统，以提高这些平台化学品生产的可持续性；3)开发从呋喃类化合物衍生的智能聚合网络。 加拿大人每年人均丢弃约396公斤食物。这些残留物可以转化为呋喃类化合物。食物残渣是一种非均质物质，关键的挑战包括抑制剂的识别和前处理的优化。生产呋喃化学品的过程也应使用尽可能具有选择性的催化剂。该计划旨在开发选择性和可回收的系统，包括功能化水凝胶和磁性催化剂，这些系统可以回收并用于流态化反应器，以连续生产这些化学品。很少有研究集中在使用绿色化学策略的呋喃类聚合物上。FDCA可以取代饮料容器常用的聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯(PET)生产中使用的单体。与PET相比，聚(呋喃甲酸乙二醇酯)可减少50%的温室气体排放。这项计划将集中在从呋喃单体合成新的聚合物可逆网络。 由该计划培训的专业人员将通过环境友好型工艺解决围绕合成途径的关键环境问题和技术挑战，从而帮助化工和聚合物行业为建立循环经济做出贡献。这一点很重要，根据2015年生物制品生产和发展调查，有190家企业报告来自生物制品的收入为43亿美元。

Biorefineries are essential for successful transition towards producing sustainable chemicals and materials from biomass. Ideally, biorefineries should be flexible and produce various fuels, chemicals and materials from agricultural, forest and municipal residues using multiple conversion processes. Ethanol is an example of a platform chemical which is commercially available from biorefineries. Furanic platform chemicals (e.g. hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), 2,5-diformylfuran (DFF), furan-2,5-dicarboxylic acid (FDCA)) are a class of compounds which are used for the production of fuels, solvents, pharmaceuticals, and biobased polymers. Despite progress towards the synthesis of these platform chemicals, there are several challenges to their production including their high cost, waste outcomes, low catalytic efficiency, the instability of some furanic chemicals (e.g. HMF), and their non-continuous production. Low cost feedstock is required for profitable and sustainable commercial-scale production of furanic chemicals as they are currently synthesized mostly from fructose and glucose. Therefore, the objectives of this program are 1) To develop a novel biorefinery strategy to convert food residues into high value furanic platform chemicals; 2) To develop heterogeneous biobased catalytic systems to be used in fluidized bed reactor to improve the sustainability of the production of these platform chemicals; and 3) To develop smart polymeric networks derived from furanic compounds. Canadians discard around 396 kg of food per capita annually. These residues can be converted into furanic compounds. Food residues are heterogeneous materials and key challenges will include the identification of the inhibitors, and the optimization of the pre-treatments. The process for the production of furanic chemicals should also use catalysts which are as selective as possible. This program will aim at developing selective and recyclable systems, including functionalized hydrogels and magnetic catalysts, which can be recycled and used in fluidized bed reactors for the continuous production of these chemicals. Few studies have focused on furanic-derived polymers using green chemistry strategies. FDCA can replace monomers used in the manufacture of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) commonly used for beverage containers. Compared to PET, poly(ethylenefuranoate) decreases greenhouse gas by 50%. This program will focus on the synthesis of new polymeric reversible networks from furanic-based monomers. The professionals trained by this program will help the chemical and polymer industry to contribute to build a circular economy by addressing critical environmental issues and technical challenges surrounding the synthesis pathways through environmentally-friendly processes. This is of importance as per the Bioproducts Production and Development Survey 2015, there were 190 businesses reporting $4.3 billion in revenues from bioproducts.