Collaborative Research: ECO-CBET: Coupled homogeneous and heterogeneous processes for an environmentally sustainable lignin-first biorefinery

未来，环境可持续的化学工业可能会利用木质生物质作为可再生碳源。在许多生物质转化过程中，在高压和高温的强迫条件下，催化材料表面的化学反应与液相中的化学反应相互作用。在最近提出的一种木材生物精炼厂中，木材中的木质素成分优先在液体相中溶解和解聚为单体。随后，生成的单体需要稳定在催化材料上，以避免形成无法进一步加工的不良化合物。为了提高这种木材生物精炼厂的环境可持续性和盈利能力，该项目将通过调整溶剂流体性质和设计针对反应环境进行优化的催化剂来加速木质素解聚和产品稳定。由于木质素还原催化分馏反应系统的复杂性，直接设计木质生物质的催化剂和流体性质是不可能的。由于木质素的结构因生物质来源的不同而不同，本项目将研究现实反应条件下木质素模型化合物的均相和非均相耦合过程，而不是实际的固体生物质。通过使用包含关键键键且其转化产物代表木质生物质转化产物的模型反应物，在不从根本上改变解聚和还原产物稳定化学的情况下，显著降低了系统的复杂性，从而实现了流体性质和催化剂的并行设计。总体而言，该项目是关于如何使用现代数据科学工具将基础计算和实验研究与生命周期评估、技术经济分析以及杨树转化设计原则的定期验证紧密结合起来的案例研究，以加快开发环境和经济上可持续的生物炼油厂。教育计划包括研究生、研究生、本科生和K-12学生。他们将在广泛的研究领域接受培训，同时强调合作解决困难环境问题的能力。为了让所有团队成员都参与到不熟悉的领域中来，学生们将针对不同的受众进行教程演示，这些演示稍后可以改编为简短的基于网络的互动讲座和关于生命周期评估和机器学习等主题的网络模块。项目参与者将通过参与外展和培训计划，扩大未被充分代表的群体、妇女和那些在科学和工程领域具有非传统背景的人的参与。该奖项反映了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。

A future, environmentally sustainable chemical industry will likely utilize woody biomass as a renewable carbon source. In many biomass conversion processes, chemical reactions in the fluid phase interact with reactions on the surfaces of catalytic materials during forcing conditions of high pressure and elevated temperature. In a recently proposed wood biorefinery, the lignin component of wood is preferentially dissolved and depolymerized to monomers in the fluid phase. Subsequently, the generated monomers need to be stabilized on a catalytic material to avoid formation of undesirable compounds that cannot be further processed. To improve the environmental sustainability and profitability of such a wood biorefinery, this project will accelerate both the lignin depolymerization and the product stabilization by tuning the solvent fluid properties and designing catalysts that are optimized for the reaction environment. Given the complexity of the lignin reductive catalytic fractionation reaction system, it is hardly possible to directly design the catalyst and fluid properties for woody biomass. Because lignin structure varies for different biomass sources, this project will study the coupled homogeneous and heterogeneous processes under realistic reaction conditions for lignin model compounds instead of actual solid biomass. By working with model reactants that contain the critical bond linkages and whose conversion products are representative of the conversion products of woody biomass, the system complexity is dramatically reduced without fundamentally changing the depolymerization and reductive product stabilization chemistry, enabling the concurrent design of fluid properties and catalyst. Overall, this project constitutes a case study of how to use modern data science tools for tightly integrating fundamental computational and experimental research with life cycle assessment, techno-economic analysis, and regular validation of design principles for the conversion of poplar to expedite the development of an environmentally and economically sustainable biorefinery. The education plan includes postgraduate, graduate, undergraduate, and K-12 students. They will be trained in broad research areas while emphasizing the ability to work collaboratively in addressing difficult environmental problems. To engage all team members in unfamiliar fields, students will give tutorial presentations that are aimed at a diverse audience and that can later be adapted into short interactive web-based lectures and web modules on topics such as life cycle assessment and machine learning. Project participants will broaden the participation of underrepresented groups, women, and those with non-traditional backgrounds in science and engineering by engaging in outreach and training programs.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.