SBIR Phase I: Manufacturing a New Sustainable Plastic

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will create a sustainable film to keep food fresh in flexible packaging. This project advances the use of abundant woody biomass residue, typically drawn from residue from forestry, agriculture, or building demolition, for a new plastic film This bioplastic film will address global demand for lightweight, fresh food packaging that is environmentally sound. Vapor barrier, flexible packaging is a $30B/yr global market, and the US produces 1B tons/yr of woody biomass - ample to supply the global demand for high barrier packaging. This project makes renewable, high barrier packaging from cellulose by deconstructing it to the sugar levoglucosan and then precisely re-polymerizing a nanostructured film with intrinsic strength, flexibility, temperature resistance, and vapor barrier properties. The innovation is biobased, poly(2,3)Glucose thermoplastic with intrinsic vapor barrier properties. Without laminations, crosslinks, or additives poly(2,3)Glucose biodegradable thermoplastic can be continuously recycled or decomposed in the environment. A recent breakthrough in the cost of pyrolyzing lignocellulose to levoglucosan makes levoglucosan cost competitive with fossil fuel feed stocks. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.