Location: Sustainable Biofuels and Co-products Research
Project Number: 8072-41000-110-007-A
Project Type: Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Oct 1, 2021
End Date: Jul 31, 2024
Objective:
For bio-based products to have commercial value, they must be functional, biodegradable, environmentally safe, and most importantly economically feasible. From our previous techno-economic modeling studies, the aryl branched-chain fatty acid monomers produced from refined vegetable oils has been identified as one of the key problems. The model predicted that the oils have contributed a significant amount to the overall cost. Thus, the choice of exploring non-edible oils as feedstocks is an ideal solution to improve the economics. One that has shown high potential is waste oil, which is typically expensive to dispose. The Objective is to produce the aryl branched chain fatty acid products using the waste oils.
Approach:
Aryl branched-chain fatty acid monomer product synthesis. Briefly, in a stainless steel reactor, fatty acids from waste oil, phenolics, and catalytic amounts of solid catalysts will be mixed and heated to the desired temperature and pressure. The amount of phenolic will be optimized according to the fatty acid contents to maximize the yield of the desired products. Depending on the results obtained, the selected solid catalyst will be pretreated and optimized based on the structural frameworks and textural properties. The solid will be removed by vacuum filtration which will allow reusability.
