Plant based epoxy are already available on the market, but I think it's important to be able to bring such technology down to a crafts level where rural farmers in third world countries can produce high tech composite materials using nothing but plants and local materials.
For more read about Fiber Crops
There is also the possibility of ultra strong carbon fibers from plant based chemicals as well, replacing petroleum.
In the course of my research I found it is possible to get almost all of the compounds found in Crude Oil from organic sources such plant, animal waste and algae.
Using catalysts and heat and pressure known as pyrolysis it's possible to convert almost any source hydrocarbon in to almost any other. As computing power increases we will be able to have computational chemistry simulators that will be able to perform billions of experiments to find the right chemical processes to produce anything we are currently getting from petroleum today, including the gasoline we currently run are automobiles with today.
Epoxys and Plastics.
- Wiki: Biodegradable plastic
- Wiki: Bioplastic
- Edmond firm sees future selling plant-based epoxies
- More plastic from plants
- Plastic That Grows On Trees
On the more technical side:
- Adhesive Properties of Wood-biomass Based Epoxy Resins
- Synthesis of wood-based epoxy resins and their mechanical and adhesive properties
- Epoxidized Mesua ferrea L. seed oil-based reactive diluent for BPA epoxy resin and their green nanocomposites
Another good link:
ECOS Magazine
UPDATE: 9/30/09
From: A Better Bug for Biofuels
MIT Professor Anthony Sinskey developed a way to make polymers from bacteria, founding a bioindustrial company called Metabolix in the early 1990s. A $300 million plant that will produce the company's biodegradable plastic is slated to begin operations later this year in December, as part of a joint venture with agricultural giant ADM.
One central control cabinet, giving alarms when temperature or pressure has something wrong.
ReplyDeletePlastic Pyrolysis Plant