NEW RENEWABLE POLYMERS FROM BIO-BASED OIL

Bio-oil

Pyrolysis as a technique of degrading biomass waste into bio-oil [1,2]. Bio-oil is considered to be a renewable feedstock for the production of energy, fuels, chemicals, carbon materials and plastics. Bio-oil is a liquid mixture of organic compounds, such as cellulose/hemicellulose derived sugar monomers, sugar oligomers and the derivatives of sugars such as carboxylic acids, aldehydes, ketones, esters, alcohols, and the lignin derived phenolics, pyrolytic lignin as well as a high content of water [3].

The production of bio-oil in a large scale can also be achieved in some research groups/companies such as UPM refinery in Finland, Red arrows-Ensyn in Canada, Pyrovac in Canada, Genting in Malaysia, Fortum-Valmet in Finland, BTG-BTL/Empyro in the Netherlands, Kior in the USA and AE Cote-Nord Bioenergy/Ensyn in Canada [4]. Various researchers have developed the method for upgrading of bio-oil into biofuel via hydrodeoxygenation, aiming to decrease the oxygen content of bio-oil to increase the heating value and its thermal stability of bio-oil.

Bio-oil to Plastics

The application of fossil fuel as the source of fuels, petroleum resources are used to produce plastics. Due to the cheap price and high demands, a huge amount of plastic waste is piled up in the environment, which implies an ecological problem because of the low degradation kinetics [5]. Also, during the decomposition of the plastics, toxins were produced from additives such as phthalates and plasticizers. As a result, the production of biodegradable plastics was investigated in recent decades [6]. However, their high price, lower mechanical properties, and low appearance quality (not transparent) have narrowed their production on a large scale. Therefore, the production of biodegradable plastics from biomass as a cheap feedstock has been studied. The bio-oil could be fractionated to the different chemicals such as ethanol, xylose, acetic acid, ethylene, phenols styrene, etc., which could be considered as the monomers for the production of different plastics.

Moita et al. reported the bio-oil from the pyrolysis of chicken beds to produce polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA). They used the bio-oil as a substrate to a mixed microbial culture to produce PHA. The yield of PHA product was 9.2 wt% (on dry basis) and its properties was similar to the PHA produced from other resources and it was composed of hydroxybutyrate (70 wt%) and hydroxyvalerate (30 wt%) monomers [7]. Recently, Ruiz et al. have synthesized the bio-based thermoplastic synthesized from liquefied pinewood. The matrix of the plastic was produced from the distillation of bio-oil (yield of the matrix was 43 wt% on the wood fed in basis). In the next stage, the flax fibre was mixed with different percentages of the bio-oil. A twin-screw mixer has been used to blend the matrix and fibre. The production of the schematic process is shown in Figure 1. The tensile analysis results showed the mechanical properties of the obtained bioplastic was similar to the features of conventional fossil resources based thermoplastics such as methyl methacrylate, polyvinyl chloride, or polystyrene (tensile strength was 0.4 MPa for non-reinforced matrix, while it was 55 MPa for matrix/flax composite with 20 wt% fibre content).

Figure 1. The schematic of the production of fully recyclable plastics from wood [5].

The price of wood-based plastic was estimated to about 400–500 $ per ton, reported by Ruiz et al. which was very cheap compared to conventional plastics. On concluding, the research in this field is at earlier stage. Different methods were used to produce various bioplastics from bio-oil. All the proposed methods were used on the lab scale. Fully fundamental, technical, and economic studies are necessary to optimize the production process for commercial scale production.

References

X. Hu, Mortaza Gholizadeh, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 134, 110124 (2020).
D. Chen D et al., Fuel, 252, 1 (2019).
X. Hu et al., AIChE J, 59, 888 (2013).
X. Hu X, M. Gholizadeh, J Energy Chem, 39, 109 (2019).
M.P. Ruiz et al., ChemSusChem, 12, 4395 (2019).
H. Kargarzadeh et al., Prog Polym Sci, 87, 197 (2018).
R. Moita, P.C. Lemos, J Biotechnol, 157, 578 (2012).

Blog Written By

Dr. S. THIRUMURUGAN

National College, Thiruchirappalli

Tamilnadu, India

Editors

Dr. A. S. Ganeshraja

Dr. S. Chandrasekar

Dr. K. Rajkumar

Reviewer

Dr. Y. Sasikumar

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