PFI-RP: Developing Bio-based Ingredients for Plastics from Agricultural Waste

这个创新研究伙伴关系（PFI-RP）项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力将是通过使用木质素（一种天然材料）作为可再生原料来改变塑料制造。 塑料是瓶子、合成纤维、建筑材料等许多消费品的主要组成部分，并且目前由石油资源制成。近年来，已经进行了许多尝试，以从农业资源中生产塑料成分作为更可持续的原料。一个技术挑战是处理植物来源（草与硬木）作为原料的多样性的能力，以制造目前用于塑料的一致和兼容的成分。这项工作开发了一种技术，从各种来源的木质素中制造塑料前体，如纤维素乙醇工厂或纸浆和造纸工业。这项拟议中的技术将木质素分解成更小的化学物质，这些化学物质很容易转化为可用于制造塑料的物质。通过展示模块化技术概念，只需增加模块数量即可实现工业生产率的规模化。 该技术的商业化有能力占据相关全球酚醛树脂市场的很大一部分，预计到2025年将达到近160亿美元。 这些增值产品将大大提高生物精炼厂的经济可行性。 拟议的项目将解决开发实际可行的技术的主要挑战，以便从木质素中生产增值产品，用于有利可图的生物精炼厂。具体目标是展示一种可扩展的技术，用于将来自各种来源的木质素（碱，有机溶剂和研磨木质素）转化为适合制造树脂和塑料的生物基预聚物。 这是通过在喷雾反应器中选择性臭氧分解木质素溶液（在乙酸中）以将木质素部分分解成低分子量芳族化合物来实现的，然后在搅拌反应器中通过用硫酸酸化将低分子量芳族化合物接枝到大分子木质素结构上。 该技术将95%的木质素转化为预聚物，预聚物通过过滤与回收的溶剂分离。 这两个步骤在有利于工艺经济性的温和操作条件（环境温度和压力）下顺序发生。 工艺优化，以形成预聚物所需的性能将指导基准与传统的酚醛树脂和酚醛树脂型。 工艺的可扩展性将通过平行操作多个喷雾反应器，然后酸化组合臭氧分解产物，生成具有相同性能的预聚物，并达到足够的数量用于产品测试来证明。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation-Research Partnerships (PFI-RP) project will be to transform plastics manufacturing by using lignin, a naturally occurring material, as a renewable feedstock. Plastics are a major component of many consumer products such as bottles, synthetic fibers, building materials, etc., and are currently made from petroleum resources. In recent years, many attempts have been made to produce ingredients for plastics from agricultural resources as a more sustainable feedstock. One technological challenge is the ability to handle the diversity of plant sources (grasses vs. hardwoods) as feedstocks to make consistent and compatible ingredients currently used in plastics. This work develops a technology to make plastic precursors from lignin derived from various sources, such as cellulosic ethanol plants or the pulp and paper industry. The proposed technology breaks down the lignin into smaller chemicals that are readily transformed into substances that can be used to make plastics. By demonstrating a modular technology concept, scale-up to industrial production rates is achieved by simply increasing the number of modules. The commercialization of this technology has the ability to capture a significant fraction of the related global phenolic resins market, expected to reach nearly $16 billion by 2025. Such value-added products will significantly enhance the economic viability of biorefineries. The proposed project will address the major challenge of developing practically viable technologies to make value added products from lignin for profitable biorefineries. Specific objectives are to demonstrate a scalable technology for converting lignin from various sources (alkaline, organosolv and milled lignin) to bio-based prepolymers suitable for making resins and plastics. This is achieved by selective ozonolysis of the lignin solution (in acetic acid) in a spray reactor to partially break up the lignin into low molecular weight aromatics which are then grafted on to the macromolecular lignin structure by acidification with sulfuric acid in a stirred reactor. This technology converts 95% of the lignin to prepolymers which are separated by filtration from the solvent which is recycled. These two steps occur sequentially at mild operating conditions (ambient temperature and pressure) that favor process economics. Process optimization to form prepolymers with desired properties will be guided by benchmarking with conventional phenol-formaldehyde and bakelite-type resins. Process scalability will be demonstrated by operating multiple spray reactors in parallel followed by acidification of the combined ozonolysis product to generate prepolymers with identical properties and in sufficient quantities for product testing.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.