SBIR Phase I: Manufacturing a New Sustainable Plastic

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目将创造一种可持续的薄膜，以保持软包装中的食品新鲜。该项目推进了大量木质生物质残留物的使用，这些残留物通常来自林业、农业或建筑物拆除的残留物，用于制造新的塑料薄膜。这种生物塑料薄膜将满足全球对环保的轻质新鲜食品包装的需求。蒸气阻隔性，软包装是一个每年300亿美元的全球市场，美国每年生产10亿吨木质生物质-足以满足全球对高阻隔性包装的需求。该项目通过将纤维素分解为糖左旋葡聚糖，然后精确地重新聚合具有固有强度、弹性、耐温性和蒸汽阻隔性的纳米结构薄膜，来制造可再生的高阻隔性包装。这一创新是基于生物的聚(2，3)葡萄糖热塑性塑料，具有固有的蒸汽阻隔性能。聚(2，3)葡萄糖生物降解热塑性塑料无需片材、交联剂或添加剂，即可在环境中连续回收或分解。最近在将木质纤维素裂解为左旋葡聚糖的成本方面取得的突破使左旋葡聚糖的成本与化石燃料饲料相比具有竞争力。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will create a sustainable film to keep food fresh in flexible packaging. This project advances the use of abundant woody biomass residue, typically drawn from residue from forestry, agriculture, or building demolition, for a new plastic film This bioplastic film will address global demand for lightweight, fresh food packaging that is environmentally sound. Vapor barrier, flexible packaging is a $30B/yr global market, and the US produces 1B tons/yr of woody biomass - ample to supply the global demand for high barrier packaging. This project makes renewable, high barrier packaging from cellulose by deconstructing it to the sugar levoglucosan and then precisely re-polymerizing a nanostructured film with intrinsic strength, flexibility, temperature resistance, and vapor barrier properties. The innovation is biobased, poly(2,3)Glucose thermoplastic with intrinsic vapor barrier properties. Without laminations, crosslinks, or additives poly(2,3)Glucose biodegradable thermoplastic can be continuously recycled or decomposed in the environment. A recent breakthrough in the cost of pyrolyzing lignocellulose to levoglucosan makes levoglucosan cost competitive with fossil fuel feed stocks.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.