From Petroleum to Biobased Crude: A Thermoplastic Polyurethane from Lignin-Oil Without Isocyanates

Conference · Thu Jun 16 04:00:00 EDT 2022

OSTI ID:1957998

Sternberg, James; Pilla, Srikanth; Brandner, David G.; Dreiling, Reagan J.; Ringsby, Arik; Kruger, Jacob S.; Beckham, Gregg T.

The movement to transfer from petroleum-based products and materials to renewables does not necessarily have to bypass the use of oil. A new type of "black-gold" is readily abundant from the earth's most abundant source of aromatic carbon: lignin. While fractionation of petroleum yields fuels and chemicals for a diverse set of industries, lignin fractionation using targeted catalysts has demonstrated the ability to generate monomers and oligomers rich in functional groups for polymer synthesis. This study explores the use of lignin-oil, generated from reductive catalytic fractionation of popular wood, to a hydroxyl-rich mixture of aromatics that is used to synthesize a thermoplastic non-isocyanate polyurethane. The lignin-oil is first converted to a cyclocarbonated derivative using a benign synthetic sequence and further polymerized with a diamine to yield the non-isocyanate TPU. While more work is underway to optimize the reaction conditions and meet typical mechanical properties of commercial materials, initial analysis shows thermoplastic behavior and flexible properties consistent with traditional thermoplastic polyurethanes.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE); National Science Foundation (NSF)
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1957998
• Report Number(s): NREL/CP-2800-85358; MainId:86131; UUID:57d6f64e-0406-4406-b4a4-50d665d0de86; MainAdminID:68790
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

BIOMASS FUELS
flexible properties
lignin-oil
thermoplastic behavior
thermoplastic polyurethanes
wood