US-Egypt Cooperative Research: Fractional catalytic pyrolysis for the production of biobased materials and fuels

该项目支持犹他州州立大学的Foster Agbelvor和埃及开罗国家研究中心的Waleed El-Zawawy的合作研究工作。该项目的目标是开发新的催化剂，可用于将废弃的农业生物质原料直接转化为苯酚和脱水糖，然后无需任何二次分离步骤即可用于生产可生物降解塑料和其他增值产品。这项研究旨在改善催化热解的过程，该过程使用热量和催化剂将坚韧的木质纤维素生物质（在这种情况下，来自水稻，棉花和香蕉种植的农业废物）分解为可用于其他目的的小分子。在这项研究工作中，催化热解的产物，脱水糖和酚醛树脂，将用于制造生物降解塑料。总的来说，这一过程允许塑料由可再生资源制成，否则就是废料，同时也使塑料产品造成更少的污染。 埃及团队将主要负责开发新的催化剂，而美国团队将致力于改进热解过程，包括气体的使用和回收，两个团队都在寻求提高所需芳烃产品的产量。研究工作还将使用分馏催化热解产生的油来生产生物基聚氨酯泡沫和“酚醛清漆”聚合物。总的来说，这项研究可能会导致如何从木质纤维素生物质中生产化学品的新知识。它还将展示如何从埃及和美国广泛使用的农业废物中生产新的高价值塑料产品，同时解决这些农业废物的处理问题。在埃及，大米和棉花生产的副产品经常在田地里燃烧，增加了空气污染，这是考古遗迹严重恶化的原因。将农业残留物转化为生物基材料有可能在埃及和美国农村地区启动新的产业并创造就业机会。该项目还将涉及Maha Ibrahim博士等女科学家的参与，培训埃及初级研究人员和一名美国研究生。该项目由美国-埃及联合科学技术基金项目资助。这些合作项目的美方支持由美国国务院提供给国家科学基金会。埃及政府为合作的埃及方面提供支持。

This project supports a cooperative research effort by Foster Agbelvor of Utah State University and Waleed El-Zawawy of the National Research Center, Cairo, Egypt. The goal of their project is to develop new catalysts that can be used to convert waste agricultural biomass feedstocks directly into phenols and anhydrosugars which can then be used, without any secondary separation steps, to produce biodegradable plastics and other value added products. This research seeks to improve the process of catalytic pyrolysis, which uses heat and a catalyst to break down tough, lignocellulosic biomass, in this case agricultural waste from rice, cotton and banana farming, into small molecules that can be used for other purposes. In this research effort, the products of catalytic pyrolysis, anhydrosugars and phenolics, will be used to make biodegradable plastics. Overall, this process allows plastics to be made from a renewable resource that is otherwise a waste material, while also making a product plastic that causes less pollution. The Egyptian team will be primarily responsible for developing new catalysts while the U.S. team will work to improve the pyrolysis process including the use and recycling of gases, with both teams seeking to improve yields of the desired aromatic products. The research effort will also use the oils produced from fractional catalytic pyrolysis to produce biobased polyurethane foam and "novolac" polymers.Overall this research may lead to new knowledge of how to produce chemicals from lignocellulosic biomass. It will also demonstrate how to generate new and high-value plastic products from agricultural wastes that are widely available in Egypt and the USA, while simultaneously addressing the problem of disposal of those agricultural wastes. In Egypt the byproducts of rice and cotton production are often burned in the fields, increasing air pollution that is responsible for significant deterioration of archeological monuments. The conversion of the agricultural residues to biobased materials has the potential to start new industries and create employment opportunities in rural Egypt and the USA. The project will also involve the participation of female scientists such as Dr. Maha Ibrahim, the training of Egyptian junior researchers and a U.S. graduate student. This project is funded through the US-Egypt Joint Science and Technology Fund Program. Support for the U.S. side of these cooperative projects is provided to the National Science Foundation by the U.S. Department of State. The Egyptian Government provides support for the Egyptian side of the collaboration.