Recipient Organization
NaSource Company
(N/A)
Newbury Park,CA 91320
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Enormous quantities of byproduct lignins could be produced from biorefinery processes such as biomass-to-ethanol. Burnning of the lignins to generate electricity is not economical and technically difficult. The development of value-added lignin products will solve this problem and increase both revenue and profit. This project examines certain chemical modification methods aiming at improving specific intrinsic material properties of industrial lignins for formulation into plastics resins.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Enormous quantities of very low-cost industrial lignins could be available for use from conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to produce fuels and chemicals. However, the utilization of the byproduct lignins as chemical feedstocks has generally not been recognized in the emerging biorefinery concepts. Byproduct lignins are usually designed to be burned to produce electricity at an equivalent fuel value of only about 3 cents/pound. With the biomass-to-ethanol process just on the verge of being profitable, there is a growing incentive for developing high-volume, value-added lignin-based products to increase both revenue abd profit. This project will develop novel technology of lignin-based polymeric materials. The objective of this phase I research is to investigate the feasibility of certain chemical modification methods to improve the material properties of the lignins for use in new lignin-based plastics formulations. The lignin-based products could solve the problem
of lingin utilization and could play a key role in the economic viability of biorefinery processes. The success of the project will result in novel lignin-based plastics that are competitive with petroleum based products in both cost and performance. The products will be used in plastics resins market and the manufactured plastics products market. They will also enable new applications due to their biodegradable and renewable features.
Project Methods
For a long time, attempts to use industrial lignins as feedstocks for making polymeric materials have been focused on using/modifying their hydroxyl functionality or increasing their reactivity for use as polymeric components in synthetic resins. They have been used as the phenol components in phenol-formaldehyde resins and the polyol components in polyurethanes, epoxies and acrylics, or as the backbones for grafting synthetic polymer chains. However, when the lignin contents reach levels of 25-35% (w/w), the mechanical properties of these materials have deteriorated to the point that they are brittle and useless. Since commercial petroleum-based resins have excellent mechanical properties and reasonable prices, there is not much incentive to use lignin derivatives to substitute part of the components for their production. Therefore, lignin utilization along these lines has not been successful. Recent new understandings of lignin structures and properties and the
successful formulation of alkylated lignin-based thermoplastics represent a paradigm shift in lignin product development, i.e. lignins can be useful on their own right. This project will employ chemical modifications aiming at improving specific intrinsic material properties of lignins. The modified lignins will be formulated into plastics resins.