Preparation of polyurethane foam from microwave pyrolytic bio-oils

I&EC 62

Yuanhua Wang, wangx718@umn.edu1, Jianping Wu, wjp@zju.edu.cn2, Fei Yu3, Paul Chen3, and Roger Ruan1. (1) Department of Bioproducts and Biosystem Engineering, University of Minnesota, 1390 Eckles Ave., Saint Paul, MN 55108, (2) Department of Chemical and Biochemical engineering, Zhejiang University, Zheda Road 38, Hangzhou, China, (3) Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, 1390 Eckles Ave, Saint Paul, MN 55108
Currently biooils from thermochemical conversion of biomass are mainly used as fuels. The goal of the present research is to use biooils as feedstock for making biomaterials, and therefore to contribute to the expansion of the biooil market. Our specific research objective was to evaluate the feasibility of preparing polyurethane foam from biooils made from microwave pyrolysis, a novel thermochemical conversion process being developed in our lab. Biooils obtained under different microwave pyrolysis conditions were used in the experiments. The underlying principle of preparing polyurethane foam is to crosslink the hydroxyl groups in biooils with the isocyanate group. The number of hydroxyl groups in the biooils was analyzed, which was used to calculate how much crosslinking agents were needed for complete reactions. The crosslinking agents used were MDI, TDI, PPI and other commercial available isocyanate such as Papi 27 and Isocyanate 181. The tensile strength, the elongation, stability and biodegradability of the prepared polyurethane foam are being analyzed. The effects of microwave pyrolysis and crosslinking conditions on the properties of the polyurethane foam are also evaluated.
 

IEC Poster Session
8:00 PM-10:00 PM, Tuesday, August 21, 2007 BCEC -- Exhibit Hall - B2, Poster

Division of Industrial & Engineering Chemistry

The 234th ACS National Meeting, Boston, MA, August 19-23, 2007