There is a growing interest in deriving chemical products from renewable feedstock to lower our reliance on fossil fuel while reducing environmental impact. Tree barks are renewable biomass residues available in large quantities from forest mills with unique physical and chemical characteristics. Bark materials are well suited for synthesizing a wide range of chemical products substituting petroleum-derived feedstock.  We have successfully synthesized bio-based polyols using bark by liquefaction and alkoxylation reactions. For liquefaction, it was found that high temperature liquefaction resulted in the degradation of sugars, while liquefaction at mild temperatures preserved sugar structures. Polyhydric alcohols with short chain primary hydroxyls as the liquefaction solvent resulted in less sugar degradation products and less formation of condensation side-products. During alkoxylation of bark, it was observed that the conversion yield was higher than liquefaction. The bark-based polyols from alkoxylation had a high average molecular weight with a broad distribution and far greater solubility. It is proposed that alkoxylation is far less degradative than liquefaction. As a result, the PU foams made using bark-based polyols obtained from alkoxylation showed improved compressive behaviour compared to the foams made from liquefied bark-based polyols.

Conversion of bark to bio-based polyols via liquefaction and alkoxylation reactions

254th National Meeting (2017)

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