USDA NIFA awards grant for plastics development from lignin

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Type of post: NEWS IN BRIEF.

 The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) coordinate and co-fund the Integrated Biorefinery Optimization (IBO) program. Last September, the Blog reported that the DOE had selected eight projects to negotiate for up to 15 M$ under this program (see “US DOE selects eight projects to optimize integrated biorefinery operations”, 22/9/2017). Now, the NIFA has just awarded a grant to the Center for Renewable Carbon at the University of Tennessee through the same program (see announcement).

Figure 1. Center for Renewable Carbon at the University of Tennessee

The details of the granted project are summarized in the following table:
Objective
To develop integrated pathways for the extraction of value-added polymeric products from lignin waste/under-valued stream from biorefinery. A lignin stream from an organosolv biorefining process will be converted into acrylonitrile-butadiene-lignin (ABL) to directly replace petroleum based plastics used in today's market.
Strategy
1. Cost-efficient isolation of biomass constituents (lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose) via organosolv fractionation to recover lignin with high yield (>70%) and high purity (>90%).
2. Development and commercialization of lignin bioplastics with engineered properties and deployable cost for residential and commercial buildings' siding applications.
3. Assessment of the integrated biorefining process via techno-economic analysis and cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA).
Partnership
- The Center for Renewable Carbon at the University of Tennessee (UT-CRC).
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).
- Natural Resources Research Institute at the University of Minnesota (NRRI).
- American Science and Technology Corporation (AST),
- University of Wisconsin Stevens Point (UW-SP).
- Long Trail Sustainability (LTS).
- Advanced Lignin Biocomposites LLC (ALB-LLC).
Duration
From 1/1/2018 to 31/12/2018.
Grant amount
2,994,429 $.
The funding comes from NIFA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), which addresses challenges in food and agricultural sciences through research, extension and education.

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