Solvent free highly efficient Metathesis and development of biobased polyesters from waste and renewable lipids

• Author / Creator

  Pradhan, Rehan A

• A linear economy is a traditional way of making materials, for instance, utilization of fossil fuel to develop plastics that finally end-up into landfills and oceans posing threat to the existence of marine life and disrupting natural harmony and co-existence. On the other hand, the circular economy is an emerging concept, which induces circular flow of materials that minimizes the reliance on virgin materials and treat waste as the useful feedstock. An attempt was made to adopt the principle of circular economy to develop biobased materials from used waste lipids taken/extracted from used cooking oil and spent hen and compared with canola oil without extensive purification.
  This thesis firstly reports the synthesis of polymer precursors from these waste lipidic feedstocks using microwave-assisted solvent-less ethenolysis. The turnover numbers (TONs) of the catalyst were significantly improved through optimization of catalyst/feedstock system. Excellent turnover number values were demonstrated for the ethenolysis of Canola Oil Esters (TONs= 92000), Used-Cooking Oil Esters (TONs= 78080), and Chicken Fat Esters (TONs=21820). Moreover, the synthesis method involved no use of toxic solvents together with the sheer elimination of extensive purification steps for substrates and catalysts. Secondly, the ethenolyzed products were separated into non-functionalized olefinic and functionalized olefinic (ester and diester) components, and the isolated diester component was further subjected to condensation polymerization to produce bio-based polyesters. The synthesized product was characterized and investigated using different techniques including Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), Gas chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS), Gas Chromatography-Flame Ionization Detector (GC-FID), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Universal Testing Machine (UTM). The processed polyester film displayed a tensile strength of 2.44 MPa and modulus of elasticity of
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  137.6 MPa. Efforts were also made to introduce 10-20% of aromatic diol from lignocellulosic biomass to further improve thermomechanical properties. These results indicate potential utilization of waste lipidic resources to substitute conventional petroleum resources.
  The present work, based on rapid synthesis and greener approach, could open new opportunities for sustainable production of bio-based polymer precursors and development of polyesters for utilization in soft packaging and other applications.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • circular economy
  • bioplastic
  • green chemistry
  • metathesis
  • biomonomer

• Graduation date

  Fall 2020

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-vccs-kb23

• License

  Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission.