SBIR-STTR Award

Algenesis Materials is developing sustainable and biodegradable polyurethanes derived from algae biomass. Within this program, we are developing high performance thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs) that can contain 100% renewable content and are completely biodegradable, and we have the fundamental technology to prepare these TPUs with 75% of the carbon content derived from algae. Developing algae-based polymeric materials for consumer products will help grow the algae supply chain, while contributing to the US goals for developing sustainable fuels by increasing the value of algae biomass, allowing algae fuels to reach economic viability sooner. However, we face challenges in the chemical conversion technology necessary to achieve high algae content in final products, specifically in the conversion of algae oils into one of the key monomers of polyurethanes - diisocyanates. Following ozonolysis of algae fatty acids into azelaic acid, our proposed process will then convert azelaic acid into azelaic dihydrazide in two sequential batch chemistry steps. The azelaic dihydrazide is then converted, via Curtius rearrangement using flow chemistry, into heptamethylene diisocyanate. Flow chemistry, the process of using continuous flow for chemical reactions, has opened the door for next-generation chemical reaction development and process engineering and is highly amenable to scale-up from small-scale demonstration to large-scale industrial production. In this program we aim to convert the two batch processes that convert azelaic acid into azelaic dihydrazide into a continuous flow chemistry process. Over the course of three aims, we will scale this process to the pre-pilot scale to enable production of at least 1 kg of azelaic dihydrazide per week. We will further demonstrate that the produced azelaic dihydrazide can be transformed into heptamethylene diisocyanate, and then use the heptamethylene diisocyanate to produce thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs) with over 75% algae content. We will measure the physical metrics of these TPUs to demonstrate their suitability for use in commercial polyurethane products.