(December 11, 2015) Washington
State University researchers have developed a catalyst that easily converts
bio-based ethanol to a widely used industrial chemical, paving the way for more
environmentally friendly, bio-based plastics and products.
The chemical industry is interested in moving away from
fossil fuels to bio-based products to reduce environmental impacts and to meet
new regulations for sustainability, said Yong Wang, Voiland Distinguished
Professor in the Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and
Bioengineering.
The industry has traditionally made a widely used chemical
called isobutene – used in everything from plastic soda bottles to rubber tires
– by superheating crude oil. But in collaboration with the Archer Daniels
Midland (ADM) Company, Wang and his colleagues developed a catalyst to convert
bio-based ethanol, which is made from corn or other biomass, to isobutene in
one easy production step.
The catalyst works
on bio-based ethanol to create isobutene
used in plastics
and other products.
The researchers examined the costs and lifetime of their
catalyst to determine its practicality for the marketplace and determined that
it could be used for other closely related feedstocks. They also discovered
just how their catalyst works, knowledge that could be used to design more
efficient catalysts for a wide range of applications.