Research Findings Enable Production of Bio-Renewable Materials from Trees and Corn
A team led by researchers from the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities transforms renewable materials such as wood and corn into acrylic acid and acrylates, key chemicals used in paints, coatings and superabsorbent polymers. Invented a revolutionary new catalyst technology. The new catalytic technology is also highly efficient, reducing the cost of producing renewable chemicals.
The new catalyst formulation converts corn-derived lactic acid-based chemicals to acrylic acid and acrylates with the highest yields ever achieved. This technology exhibits significantly higher performance when benchmarked against other classes of leading catalysts.
This study is published online Journal of the American Chemical Society Gold (jacks au), the leading open access journal of the American Chemical Society.
This research team was supported by the National Science Foundation through the NSF Center for Sustainable Polymers. The NSF Center for Sustainable Polymers is a multi-university team whose mission is to transform the way plastics are made, manufactured and remanufactured through innovative research.
The public is most familiar with acrylic acid and related acrylates through their use in everyday products, from paints and coatings to sticky adhesives to superabsorbent materials used in diapers. These chemicals and materials have been made from fossil fuels for the last century. However, in the last few decades, the corn industry has expanded beyond food and livestock feed into the production of useful chemicals. am. It is a key ingredient in the production of renewable and compostable plastics used in many everyday applications.
Lactic acid can also be converted to acrylic acid and acrylates using catalysts. However, until this new catalyst was discovered, conventional catalysts were very inefficient, yielding low yields, and the overall process cost too high.
Paul Dauenhauer, professor of chemical engineering and materials science at the University of Minnesota, said: “We have benchmarked the performance of the new catalyst against all previous catalysts and it far exceeds the previous examples.”
The new catalyst formulation significantly reduces the cost of producing renewable acrylic acid and acrylates from corn by improving yield and reducing waste. This could lead to the price of renewable acrylic acid falling below fossil-derived chemicals for the first time.
The economic opportunities created by new catalysts are being pursued by Låkril Technologies, a start-up that aims to produce low-cost, renewable acrylic acid and acrylic acid esters. Låkril Technologies develops technology beyond the laboratory by licensing its catalytic technology from the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Chris Nicholas, CEO of Låkril Technologies, said: “Because our new catalyst discovery is based on zeolite formulations that are already available on a large scale, our new process for producing acrylic acid and acrylates offers low risk and low cost.”
Chicago-based Låkril Technologies has already received $1.4 million in pre-seed funding to scale its process. The Iowa Corn Growers Association received grants from the Minnesota Corn Research Promotion Council, the Indiana Corn Marketing Council, the Michigan Corn Marketing Council, and the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Award, with participation from the Kentucky Corn Growers Association. Led funding from Both the US Department of Agriculture and the US Department of Energy.
At the University of Minnesota, the research team will continue fundamental research on catalyst design to understand fundamental aspects of chemistry, with financial support from the University of Minnesota-based Center for Sustainable Polymers.
“This is a great example of how addressing the key fundamental research questions at the heart of fundamental catalysis can lead to revolutionary new processes with real technological potential. Department of Chemistry, University of Minnesota “The grand challenge of the Center for Sustainable Polymers is the efficient and sustainable conversion of biomass into polymer components, and this work represents a revolutionary solution to that challenge.” will have a lasting impact.”
Original: Chemistry Researchers Discover Catalysts to Make Renewable Paints, Coatings and Diapers
Than: University of Minnesota
