Developing cost-competitive and high-performance biolubricants from waste/non-edible oils (waste cooking oils and pennycress seed oil)

先进工业流体有限公司(PIFL)一直在与Charles Xu博士(本计划的PI)合作，以食用植物油(菜籽油、葵花油、大豆油等)为原料生产生物清洗剂。自2021年9月以来，通过Mitacs Accelerate实习项目。这一新的联盟使命项目将正在进行的Mitacs实习项目的范围扩大到通过网络方法从废/非食用油(废食用油和一叶草籽油)中开发具有成本竞争力的高性能生物清洗剂，涉及一个多学科团队，成员包括西方大学和莱克黑德大学的化学和生化工程、化学和生物学的研究人员，以及CanmetMATERIALS和PIFL的合作者。这一合作项目的目标和预期结果是：(1)创新和成本效益高的化学和工艺，将废弃/非食用油(废弃食用油和水仙菜籽油)转化为高性能的生物清洗剂产品；(2)与市场上现有的石油基润滑剂相比，证明开发的生物清洗剂具有生物降解性；(3)生物清洗剂产品的防腐/抗磨性能；(4)向行业合作伙伴申请1-2项专利；(5)培训10名HQP并发表10-20篇期刊/会议论文。PIFL热衷于授权该项目开发的IP(专利)，并将继续与研究团队合作，进行技术经济分析和市场分析，以证明该技术的技术经济可行性。行业合作伙伴将通过开发环境足迹更少的高价值生物清洗剂直接受益于该项目。将废油/非食用油转化为高性能的生物基润滑油产品具有环境效益和经济效益。生物洗涤剂的未来商业化不仅将为餐馆(产生大量需要处理的废弃食用油)和农业部门(在边缘土地上种植一叶草)创造新的价值流，而且还将减少加拿大对化石燃料的依赖，减少温室气体排放，并为新兴的循环/生物经济做出贡献。

Progressive Industrial Fluids Ltd. (PIFL) has been collaborating with Dr. Charles Xu (the PI of this proposal) on production of biolubricants from edible vegetable oils (canola, sunflower, soybean oils, etc.) through a Mitacs Accelerate internship project since September 2021. This new Alliance Missions project expands the scope of the ongoing Mitacs internship project to developing cost-competitive and high-performance biolubricants from waste/non-edible oils (waste cooking oils and pennycress seed oil) through a network approach, involving a multidisciplinary team comprising researchers in chemical and biochemical engineering, chemistry and biology at Western University and Lakehead University, and collaborators at CanmetMATERIALS and PIFL. The goals and expected outcomes of this partnership project are: (1) innovative and cost-effective chemistry and processes for valorization of waste/non-edible oils (waste cooking oils and pennycress seed oil) into high-performance biolubricant products; (2) demonstrated biodegradability of the developed biolubricants compared with the existing petroleum-based lubricants in the market; (3) anti-corrosion/anti-wear performance of the biolubricant products; (4) Filing of 1-2 patents to be licensed to the Industry Partner; (5) Training of 10 HQP and publishing of 10-20 journal/conference papers. PIFL is keen on licensing the IPs (patents) developed from this project and will keep working with the research team to conduct a techno-economic analysis and market analysis to prove the techno-economic feasibility of the technology. The Industry Partner will directly benefit from this project by the development of high value biolubricants with less environmental footprints. Conversion of waste/non-edible oils into high-performance bio-based lubricant products have both environmental and economic benefits. Future commercialization of the biolubricants will not only create new value streams for restaurants (generating large amounts of waste cooking oils that need disposal) and the agricultural sector (growing pennycress in marginal lands) but also reduce Canada's dependence on fossil fuels, cut greenhouse gas emission and contribute to the emerging circular/bioeconomy.