LUNA INNOVATIONS INCORPORATED — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase I: 8.1

Description

The fluctuating price of crude oil in the past decade has resulted in a rise in chemical costsaffecting the price of petroleum-based products plastics and specialty polymers. Non-traditionaland renewable feedstocks for these industries need to be developed to decrease dependence onpetroleum address economic concerns and produce materials with little environmental impact. Theeconomic viability of turning woody biomass into useful chemicals may play a critical role in thistransition while protecting forest resources and ensuring the continued existence of productiveforest ecosystems. The proposed research program is focused on the production of engineeringpolymers from woody biomass using catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP). State-of-the-art CFP producesmultiple product streams including fuel vapors condensed bio-oil and an aqueous stream thatcontains valuable oxygenated aromatic compounds. These aqueous waste streams are typicallydiscarded or used to generate process heat; however value-added chemicals can found in thesestreams and have an untapped potential for production of new polymers. In partnership with theNational Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) the Luna team will separate and recoveroxygenated aromatics from a CFP process for the production of cost-effective high-performanceand bioderived polyether ether ketone (PEEK) resins. Unlike petroleum derived resins the PEEKmaterials derived during this program will be amorphous highly processable and will readilydissolve in a variety of solvents. These characteristics combined with lower costs of bioderivedmaterials vs. petroleum based are desirable in producing PEEK from forestlands and waste woodfeedstocks.