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USDA awards grant to develop bio-based products
The grant, awarded through the USDA National Research Initiative, will fund work by Richard P. Wool, University of Delaware professor of chemical engineering and director of the Affordable Composites from Renewable Resources (ACRES) program. Wool also is the coauthor of a new book on green materials. Wool said the grant will fund two main projects, the first being the use of soy resins and chicken feathers in the development of computer circuit boards in cooperation with the manufacturing giant Intel Corp. and the second being the use of chicken feathers to create high performance, low cost carbon fibers. In developing soy resins and chicken feathers for use in circuit boards, Wool said the research team hopes “to make the electronics materials business a little more Earth friendly.” Currently, the manufacture of circuit boards is petroleum based and highly energy intensive, and so puts a strain on the environment, Wool said. The effect of that strain is magnified by the enormous number of electronic components being manufactured worldwide, a number he said that now exceeds the number of ants on the planet. In most cases, today’s circuit boards are made of an epoxy-fiberglass composite. Wool would replace the epoxy with a biodegradable soybean oil resin and the fiberglass with chicken feathers. The use of this technology in circuit board manufacturing would have double environmental benefits, Wool said, in the replacement of petroleum-based products with sustainable materials and in the disposal of tons of waste chicken feathers. “It is estimated that farms generate 6 billion pounds of chicken feathers annually as a waste material,” Wool said. “They are hard to dispose of because they do not burn very well, and they can be considered a biohazard, given recent outbreaks of avian flu.” Furthermore, Wool said he believes the circuit boards will be superior to current components because they will make use of a unique property of chicken feathers--they are hollow and, as such, allow for the very rapid movement of electronic signals. The ACRES research group will undertake the project in cooperation with UD’s Dennis W. Prather, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, who directs a nanoscale fabrication facility. The second part of the project will concern the carbonization of chicken feathers. “Chicken feathers do not have a great deal of strength but you can make strong carbon fibers out of chicken feathers,” Wool said. “The feathers are unique because they remain hollow in a carbonized state, thus offering strength with reduced weight, which could be quite significant.” Wool said the carbonized chicken feathers could have applications in a variety of manufacturing, and particularly in the aeronautics and automotive industries. The UD research group will collaborate with researchers from Boston University, who are developing hydrogen fuel cells. Wool is the coauthor, with Xiuzhi S. Sun, professor of grain science and industry at Kansas State University, of the new 640-page Bio-Based Polymers and Composites, published in July by Elsevier Academic Press. The book addresses the cost-effective use of many common crop plants to make high performance engineered materials. The crop plants, and soybeans in particular, produce oils, starch, proteins and fibers that can be converted into plastics, adhesives, composite materials, foams, elastomers and coatings. “The book’s real significance is its timeliness,” Wool said. “With the state of the oil industry and the price of petroleum-based resins skyrocketing, people are turning to bio-based systems, which are now truly green in terms of the green in greenbacks. When the price of oil crosses a certain line, they begin to look for cheaper alternatives.” In a preface, the authors write that the conversion of biomass to useful materials has considerable economic and environmental value, “particularly in times of global warming and diminishing petroleum oil reserves.” Wool said the book provides detailed information on the chemistry, physics and engineering involved in the development of the important industrial materials that are currently petroleum based. Also, he said it includes details on the nuances of bio-based materials and their unique properties. It also considers recent advances in genetic engineering, composite science and natural fiber development that offer significant opportunities for new and improved green materials from renewable resources that can be optionally recyclable, biocompatible and biodegradable, thus enhancing global sustainability. Biocompatibility means the materials can be used as scaffolding on which to grow biological tissues, including human tissues. Low-cost composite materials made from bio-based resins and natural fibers can be used in construction, furniture, hurricane resistant housing, agricultural equipment, automotive sheet molding compounds, civil and rail infrastructure, marine applications, electronic materials and even sports equipment. Also, oils drawn from biomass materials can be used in biofuels, such as bioethanol and biodiesel. The authors write in the preface that given “the anticipated demise of the oil industry by 2050 and the rapid acceleration of global warming effects through fossil fuel consumption, the development of alternative routes to making environmentally friendly bio-based materials should be most welcomed by the present and next generation of scientists and engineers.” Wool said the book is based largely on the research of the UD ACRES program. “We have seen some astonishing successes in the past seven years,” he said, adding he expects to see continued successes in the future given the surging interest in biochemicals and bio-based materials. Wool said many of the patents for bio-based materials are owned by UD. Wool is affiliated with the UD Center for Composite Materials. He received a bachelor of science degree from University College Cork, Ireland, and a master of science degree and doctorate from the University of Utah. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of the American Chemical Society, the Materials Research Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Society of Plastic Engineers and the Neutron Scattering Society. He is a founding member of the Bio/Environmentally Degradable Plastics Society. Article by Neil Thomas To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here. |
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