Designing Recyclable Biomass-Based Polyesters (Final Technical Report)

Technical Report · Tue Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2025

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/2588430· OSTI ID:2588430

Huber, George Willis ^[1]; Chavarrio Canas, Javier Eduardo ^[1]; Grady, Brian P. ^[2]; Klier, John ^[2]; Aboukeila, Hesham ^[2]; Zavala, Victor M. ^[1]; Beckham, Gregg T. ^[3]; Chen, Eugene Y.-X. ^[4]; Singh, Onkar ^[2]; Wang, Bo-Xun ^[1]; Chokkapu, Eswara ^[5]; McClelland, Daniel ^[6]

---

1. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
2. Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States)
3. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
4. Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)
5. Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)
6. Pyran Inc., Madison, WI (United States)

This project successfully demonstrated the production of sustainable polyesters from biomass-derived monomers, offering properties on par with or superior to fossil-based plastics such as LLDPE and PBAT. Using renewable chemical platforms like furfural and HMF, we synthesized over eight novel monomers and nearly 100 aliphatic-aromatic polyesters. Among these, PPeAT and PDDF emerged as highly promising candidates for flexible packaging applications, exhibiting excellent mechanical performance, tunable thermal properties, and enhanced barrier characteristics. Key advances included the development of ring-opening polymerization strategies using cyclic monomer intermediates to produce high molecular weight materials with excellent control. The resulting polymers achieved biobased content of at least 44 wt.%. We also implemented chemical recycling via catalytic methanolysis, recovering over 90% of monomers from PPeAT at semi-pilot scale. This supports a circular economy approach by enabling material reuse without performance loss. Techno-economic and life cycle assessments confirmed that these polyesters can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 50% compared to petroleum-derived alternatives. Favorable mechanical properties may further reduce material demand, and cost competitiveness was demonstrated under specific market conditions. Feedstock cost and environmental footprint were identified as primary levers for future optimization. In summary, the project met or closely approached all technical targets, including biodegradability, strength, and processing compatibility. While minor issues such as color and melting point variation remain, the results strongly support continued development and scale-up of these sustainable materials.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States); Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States); Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Sustainable Transportation. Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO)
• DOE Contract Number: EE0009305
• OSTI ID: 2588430
• Report Number(s): FTI-DE--EE0009305
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
Biobased Plastics
Biodegradable Plastics