2002 Annual Report
Research
Value-Added Technologies for Utilization of Crop Byproducts and Residues
in Hawaii
Roger Ruan, Professor
R. Vance Morey, Professor
Paul Chen, Senior Research Associate
Xuejun Pan, Post-Doctoral Research Associate
Xiangyang Lin, Research Fellow
Hanwu Lei, Research Assistant
Fei Yu, Research Assistant
Funding Source
United States Department of Defense
Objective
The purpose of this project is to develop processes to convert renewable
biomass to biodegradable-polymeric consumer and industrial products.
Project Description
Many polymeric materials are derived from petrochemicals. As we know,
petroleum resources are naturally limited, and petroleum-based polymers
are unfriendly to the environment, and in some cases hazardous to human
health. U.S. industry has set a goal of achieving 10 percent of all basic
chemical building blocks (polymers, enzymes, etc.) from plant-derived
renewable sources by the year 2020, which represents a five-fold increase
in market share from today. Therefore, the benefits of achieving this
goal are two-fold: (1) easing the environmental impact of and reducing
our dependence on petroleum-based products, and (2) increasing farmer
and processor income through production of value-added products from plant
residues and byproducts. This project will take a “liquefaction”
approach to convert biomass to “bio-polyols,” a feedstock for
making various polymeric products.
Results
The most significant breakthrough in this research so far is the creation
of two types of bio-polymers—polyurethane and polyester—from
renewable biomasses namely polyurethane and polyester, which have large
market demands from national and international markets. Specific achievements
during this period can be summarized in the following areas:
- Liquefaction of crop residues and preparation of corresponding bio-polyols
- Liquefaction of starch with cyclic carbonates and polyalcohols
- Characterization of the bio-polyols from crop residues and starch
- Synthesis of polyurethane foams (flexible and rigid) from the bio-polyols
- Preparation of polyester sheets from the bio-polyols
- Evaluation of the polyester sheets
- Biodegradability of polyurethane foams and polyester sheets
- Preparation of adhesive for fiber board from the bio-polyols