Commercial Development of Starbon Technologies for Catalysis

The goals of the this Follow-on award at the Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence at the University of York are:1) Optimisation of the production of expanded polysaccharides, their subsequent conversion to modified Starbons for catalysts of fermentation broths2) Scaling up of chemical manufacture to larger scale in light of York research3) Investigation of Starbon catalysed reactions of fermentation broths4) Identify best market opportunities5) Liaise with potential customersThe research objectives will be attained by following:Phase 1: Investigation and optimisation of the process of Starbon preparation: This will include optimisation of the polysaccharide expansion process (gelatinisation, retrogradation, solvent exchanging and drying), starbonisation (including rate of heating, catalysts used and their concentration) and Starbon modification (including acid modification and metal nano particle formation). The Identification of best market opportunities, based on a market survey conducted on behalf of Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence, will be highlighted.Phase 2: Starbon scale up and use in catalytic transformations of fermentation broths: this includes the preparation of larger amounts of Starbons and modified Starbons. As well as material characterisation (porosimetry, FTIR, SEM and TEM analysis), simple and rapid application tests such as adsorption studies will be developed to ensure quality control of the product. These materials will be utilised as catalysts for the conversion of fermentation broth products (esterification, hydrogenation and oxidation reactions) to platform molecules. Liaise with prospective buyers for the commercialisation of this product. Intellectual MeritStarbons, a novel class of mesoporous carbonaceous materials, prepared without the use of templating agent obtained from native polysaccharides will be produced. The optimised Starbon preparation method will provide a route to reduce production costs and scale up the process for the commercialisation of this product. This research provides environmentally benign, efficient (no template required), non toxic and low cost route to applications of mesoporous carbonaceous materials in catalysis. This will be achieved by using expertise of materials chemistry and novel polysaccharide science at York and utilising fermentation broths from BioAmber, Agricultural University of Athens, University of Patras and Satake Grain Processing Centre at the University of Manchester.Broader Impacts of the Proposed Research:1. Utilisation of waste polysaccharides would both create a use for this unwanted resource and reduce production costs. 2. The development of catalytic processes for the conversion of molecules from fermentation broths to high value platform molecules would be of benefit to both the University of York and would also add additional value to the energy, biochemical research and industry sectors.3. The materials community will benefit by further research in natural products and in particular, biomass-based materials are used for higher technology applications.

By using waste polysaccharides we can help divert future food waste streams into high value materials manufacturing. This both reduces waste volumes going to landfill or being incinerated and reduces the demand for virgin resources and in particular, non-sustainable petroleum resources. The benefits include those to the food industries who can reduce their expenditure on waste disposal and potentially develop new markets for the Starbon material products. The White Biotechnology industries are rapidly developing especially in Europe and the USA and their chemical products present a vital opportunity for creating new sustainable supply chains for chemicals manufacturing. However, one of the obstacles to progress is the nature of their products which are typically dilute aqueous solutions, fundamentally different to the traditional feedstocks for the chemical manufacturing industry and not compatible with most industrial technologies. Starbon technology helps overcome this barrier, enabling cost-effective production routes to be developed starting with aqueous feeds. This will positively impact the demand for the products of the biotech industry and show the way to higher value downstream products of value to the chemicals industry. The chemical industry, and the further scientific community, will benefit from this project by the development of new catalytic processes based on these novel carbonaceous materials that have shown impressive initial results in their application to both acid and base catalysis. Similarly these materials can be used to prepare nano-structured metal based catalysts that show great promise in a number of industrial applications. The materials research community will benefit from the availability of new bio-based materials with a wide range of interesting properties and with many possible applications. There is also the real possibility of creating a new industry based on the conversion of waste polysaccharides to these new materials. The researcher appointed to this programme will become experienced in rapidly emerging fields of science, technology and their industrial application. The collaborators will also benefit from exposure to different disciplines and from learning about downstream processing of fermentation broths. We hope for new long-lasting, multidisciplinary and academic-industrial collaborations from this project.