Final Report | Biocatalytic Polymer Synthesis in and from Carbon Dioxide for Pollution Prevention| Research Project Database .
We're sending this item about our much-maligned US EPA along, just in case anyone wants to follow up with the Pitt researchers to learn more about how Carbon Dioxide can be utilized in the synthesis of commercially-useful plastics - a potential we've touched upon a few times in our CoalTL dispatches to the WV Coal Association.
As we have commented in our reports, chemical reactant use of CO2 in the synthesis of plastics would represent more of a permanent, but productive, sequestration of CO2, as opposed to it's recycling into liquid and gaseous fuels, which we have documented and will continue to document.
And, certainly, it's a far less deceptive alternative than geo-sequestration, which is, we assure you, nothing more than an exploitation of Coal by the petroleum industry.
If any do wish to follow up, please be aware that CO2 is already widely used in plastics processing, but not as a reactant consumed and transformed by plastics synthesis. It is commonly employed as a "blowing" agent to make plastic foams, wherein it's physically trapped for a time in "bubbles", from which most, or at least some, of it eventually escapes.
This EPA-sponsored Pitt research, however, appears to be similar to some other technologies we've documented, wherein the CO2 is actually consumed and chemically bound into the plastic, and thereby permanently "sequestered".
Final Report: Biocatalytic Polymer Synthesis in and from Carbon Dioxide for Pollution Prevention
EPA Grant Number: R825338
Title: Biocatalytic Polymer Synthesis in and from Carbon Dioxide for Pollution Prevention
Investigators: Russell, Alan J.
Institution: University of Pittsburgh - Main Campus
EPA Project Officer: Karn, Barbara
Project Period: October 1, 1996 through September 30, 1999
Project Amount: $180,000
RFA: Technology for a Sustainable Environment (1996)
Research Category: Pollution Prevention/Sustainable Development
Description:
Objective:
Our goals were to: (1) investigate polytransesteri-fixation of butanediol and various adipic acid esters under conditions to enhance diol synthesis, and assess molecular weight control of polytransesterification of butanediol and various adipic acid esters using pressure as a variable in supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2); (2) investigate in detail the possibility of continuous synthesis of polyester polyols in supercritical CO2; and (3) generate a computer model for prediction of chain extension and termination during enzyme catalyzed synthesis of polyesters in supercritical fluids.