homehome Home chatchat Notifications


Breakthrough chemistry can make tires from renewable sources like corn or trees

A key molecule in tire production that's typically sourced from petroleum was made for the first time using biomass.

Tibi Puiu
February 15, 2017 @ 8:51 pm

share Share

Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Long range electric vehicles hold the key to ridding the transport sector of petroleum liquid fuels, as long as the energy stored in the batteries comes from renewable energy sources. But even a Tesla charged from solar panels isn’t completely free of fossil fuels. Even ignoring the fossil fuel-derived energy that went in the manufacturing process, there are still plastic finishings inside the car that likely come petroleum. And even if you’d be extremely careful not to include anything fossil fuel related, you’d still hit a brick wall — the car’s tires.

Wheels of progress

Car tires are some of the most environmentally unfriendly parts in any car. These are made from natural rubber, which literally grows on trees,  but also isoprene — a key molecule in any tire which is derived from petroleum through a chemical process called ‘cracking’. Developing tires from renewable materials has always been a lofty goal for scientists but despite their best efforts, this has proven extremely challenging until recently. Now, a team from the University of Minnesota claims it has perfected a three-step chemical process that can produce isoprene from renewable biomass such as trees or grasses.

Previous efforts involving the manufacturing of tires from renewable sources focused on biological processes. Specifically, researchers tried fermentation of biomass — a process similar to the one used to produce ethanol — but these attempts have failed. Isoprene proves to be a challenging molecule to generate from microbes.

The team from the Center for Sustainable Polymers at the University of Minnesota also employed microbes in their process but added new steps to produce stable isoprene molecules. Paul Dauenhauer, associate professor of chemical engineering and materials science, along with colleagues, started with sugars derived from biomass, which can include anything from corn to trees. The sugars are then fermented to create itaconic acid, which is in turn reacted with hydrogen in the presence of a metal-metal catalyst to form methyl-THF (tetrahydrofuran), an intermediate molecule key to synthesizing isoprene.

Catalytic conversion of biomass-derived chemicals to renewable polymers occurs in laboratory stirred-tank reactors. Credit: University of Minnesota.

Catalytic conversion of biomass-derived chemicals to renewable polymers occurs in laboratory stirred-tank reactors. Credit: University of Minnesota.

The third and final step involves converting the dehydrate methyl-THF to isoprene, and it is herein that the breakthrough lies. Another catalyst called catalyst called P-SPP (Phosphoros Self-Pillared Pentasil) and discovered at the University of Minnesota was used for this task. Remarkably, the novel catalyst had a catalytic efficiency as high as 90 percent, i.e. most of the catalytic product turns out to be isoprene.

“The performance of the new P-containing zeolite catalysts such as S-PPP was surprising,” says Dauenhauer.  “This new class of solid acid catalysts exhibits dramatically improved catalytic efficiency and is the reason renewable isoprene is possible.”

“Economically bio-sourced isoprene has the potential to expand domestic production of car tires by using renewable, readily available resources instead of fossil fuels,” said Frank Bates, a world-renowned polymer expert and University of Minnesota Regents Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. “This discovery could also impact many other technologically advanced rubber-based products.”

Findings appeared in the journal  ACS Catalysis.

 

share Share

A Simple Heat Hack Could Revolutionize How We Produce Yogurt

In principle, the method could be deployed tomorrow, researchers say.

Scientists Create a ‘Smart Sponge’ That Knows When to Heal and When to Fight Inflammation

This hydrogel could help millions of people lead a better life.

The Race to the Bottom: Japan Is Set to Start Testing Deep-Sea Mining

There's a big hidden cost to this practice.

Japan Just Smashed the Internet Speed World Record and It's Much Faster Than You Think

Researchers transmitted 127,500 GB every second — over the distance from Chicago to Dallas.

Can You Tell Which Knot Is Strongest? Most People Fail This Surprisingly Tough Challenge

Knots are a test of physical intuition and most of us are failing hard.

Scientists Call for a Global Pause on Creating “Mirror Life” Before It’s Too Late: “The threat we’re talking about is unprecedented”

Creating synthetic lifeforms is almost here, and the consequences could be devastating.

For the First Time Ever We Can See Planets Starting to Form Around a Star

JWST and ALMA peered through a natural opening in the star’s surrounding cloud to catch the action up close.

There might be an anti-aging secret hiding in magic mushrooms

Psilocybin extends cell life, and preserves aging DNA structures.

Not Just Hunters: Wooden Tools Unearth the Sophisticated, Plant-Eating World of Early Humans

What if the Stone Age wasn't really about stone?

This is How Exercise Supercharges the Immune System Against Cancer

Exercise reshapes gut bacteria to supercharge immune response against tumors.