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

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

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.