benefits of chemicals-everywhere! but also problems across the life-cycle including consumer...

www.greenchemistry.net


York, the University and Green Chemistry at York

Top 5 UK-ranked Chemistry Department

World-leading Green Chemistry research

centre dedicated to creating genuinely

sustainable supply chains for chemicals

One of Europes finest medieval cities

Top 100 World UniversityTimes 2010

York


• Research through 4

Technology Platforms

• Industry collaboration

• Education, including Green

Chemistry MSc

• Networking with all

chemical stakeholders

Activity Areas

The Centre’s Activities can be groups into 4 areas:

The York Green Chemistry Centre….

we want to make a difference


Benefits of Chemicals-everywhere!

But also problems across the life-cycle Including

consumer perception and legislation, inefficient

manufacturing and costs of waste disposal, and

the use of non-renewable resources


Elemental unsustainability-carbon is not our only problem!


Green Chemistry is about

turning a waste into a product

and a cost into a profit


Waste is tomorrows resource

We have converted virgin resources to waste

and we now need to encourage the greater use of

chemically rich waste as a resource


The Green Chemistry Centre Technology Platforms

the way we match expertise with needs

- - Natural Solvents

- Renewable Materials

- Clean Synthesis

- Microwave Chemistry

Academic know-how+commercial relevance = societal solutions

and especially using bio- (and other) wastes as feedstocks


Natural Solvents

Science Leader Prof Ray Marriott

We are interested in supercritical and liquid

carbon dioxide as an extraction, fractionation and

reaction medium with projects covering areas

such as the extraction of waxes from agricultural

and food waste for personal care (and other)

applications, and the synthesis of flavour and

aroma molecules using in-situ biocatalysis.

We have excellent supercritical fluid extraction

facilities and access to manufacturing scale

facilities.


Extractables…….…Eco-waxes

Biomass (straws,Food waste, forestry waste…)

ScCO2 extractionProven at multi-tonne scale

Wax products

Cosmetic Products

Dewaxed residues

- Strawboard

- Garden Mulch

- Pulp & Paper

-Bioethanol

-Electricity

Health Products

Semiochemicals

Renewable resource+CO2 extraction = EU “natural”

http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.easisites.co.uk/housepics/bale_of_straw.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.easisites.co.uk/page.html?SiteID=jcjeffery&View=2&h=300&w=300&sz=19&tbnid=TLADCzXMl8wJ:&tbnh=111&tbnw=111&prev=/images?q=bale+++straw&start=260&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N


Renewable Materials

Science Leader Dr Avtar Matharu

For us this means the physical and chemical

modification of natural abundant materials and

especially polysaccharides. Projects include

Starbons (new carbonaceous materials derived

from starch), new “bio-boards” made entirely of

green and sustainable components, novel

switchable adhesives, new intumescent flame

retardants, and PVC replacements.

The area is supported by state-of-the-art thermal

analysis, spectroscopy and extrusion equipment.


Recyclable

Switchable and fire-resistant adhesives for carpet tilesDiverting millions of Kg pa from landfill and introducing renewable resources

Now working on manufacturing plant trials


Clean Synthesis and

Platform Molecules

Science Leader Dr Simon Breeden

Very much our root area with interests covering the

use of solid catalysts and alternative solvents to

“green” reactions.

Recently we have become especially interested in

doing clean synthesis starting from molecules and

mixtures derived from biomass (eg using

fermentation broths).

.


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Starbons- a new generation of water-tolerant

catalysts

-Acid catalysis directly on fermentation broths

Esterification of

succinic acid.

Starbons are now available commercially


Microwave Chemistry

Science Leader Dr Duncan MacQuarrie

This brings together our long-standing interest in

microwave-assisted chemistry with our more

recent interest in the conversion of biomass (eg

forestry and agricultural wastes, food waste, etc) to

useful products. We are working on major new

projects on fast pyrolysis for the production of

liquid fuels, high calorific value chars and

chemical intermediates.

A major part of this is the design and build of new

continuous microwave processors.


Biomass

Microwave

processor

Energy

Extracted

oil

Pyrolysis

Oil

Char

Wide range of

feedstock+ = Wide range of

products

Flexibility of Microwave

Parameters

(time, temperature, power)

Low temperature !

Microwave Processing of Biomass


–1.5 of oil

18 Kg of wheat straw = 6.7 Kg of char 5.7 Kg of oil+

Larger Scale Trial

Wheat straw @ 30 Kg/hr


Solid char35 % of total mass

58% of total energy

Biomass

Microwave Processing

Aqueous fraction31% of total mass

5% of total energy

Market:

Bio-alcohol

Transport fuel

Gas fraction14% of total energy

Market:

PowerStation

Co-firing

Power generation10% of total energy

Microwave Biorefinery Flow Chart

Sugars and Bio-oil22 % of total mass

23% of total energy

Market:

Chemicals


Property Crude OilPyrolysis

oil

Microwave oil

Literature Current York

Water (%) <1 10-20 15.2 <1

C (wt %) 85-87 45-55 60.1 58.9

H (wt %) 10-14 6-7 7.70 6.85

N (wt %) 0.1-2 0.3 2.02 1.15

S (wt%) 0 0.5-5 0.15 0.02

Acid number <1 70-150 pH= 2.87 1.4 (pH=7)

Alkali metal 50 100 7.6 6

CV (kJ/g) 42 16 - 21 17.4 16-22

Comparing microwave oil with others.


Recent Observations

-discovery of activation temperatures for cellulose and hemi-cellulose

-ability to tune conditions to maximise oil, char or chemical yields

-ability to produce sugars in high yields

-proof of concept for a wide variety of biomass types

-exceptionally low activation temperature for algae

-high aromatic yields for some biomass types

-excellent conversion efficiency for waste paper

-use of one biomass to catalyse the decomposition of other biomass

--


Biorefinery

R&D Centres

Green Chemistry Centre

IdeasCommercial

Products

Laboratory &

Desk-top

Studies

Training for

industry

partners

Proving routes

& technologies

Scale-up &

Application

Studies

Environmental Impact

Assessments

Speculative Research

Discovery

Focussed Research

Industrial Collaboration

Applied Research

Green Chemistry at York: from research bench to semi-scale

We are now developing demonstrator facilities

to prove our green chemical technologies

at scale and in different locations worldwide


NORSC

Combining the expertise of the

leading Northern England Universities

to provide sustainable chemistry

solutions to industry

MUSC

The Chemical Industries Association

and the Green Chemistry Centre

working together to create new

green and sustainable supply chains

for chemical products

Anglo-French

collaboration

chemicals from biomass

using green chemistry

and white biotechnology

Green Chemistry and the

Consumer

Green chemistry solutions

for

the retailer and producer

Green Chemistry networks

worldwide

Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, Japan,

USA,

Korea, Brazil……..

Promoting awareness and

facilitating, education,

training and practice

of green chemistry

worldwide

SUSTOILThe international

Network for

alternatives to

petroleum


Research

Industry

Networking

Education


benefits of chemicals-everywhere! but also problems across the life-cycle including consumer...

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