Executive summary
Regardless of the high potential to be used in the industrial applications, it is estimated that just up to 20% of the produced soybean oil (SO) is used for the industrial applications, and the rest is refined for cooking or simply used for the biodiesel production, often with a low profit margin. The United States is the world’s leading soybean producer, with a huge surplus of SO. This surplus of SO, which is currently exported with a low cost, can be well-employed to promote the economy of the soybean-producing states, i.e., South Dakota. In this proposal, the route for the synthesis of two novel value-added products from SO is presented. Herein, after a careful study of the SO current applications, the involved chemistry, market derivatives, and based on group’s 6 years of experience in the resin field, a new platform for the utilization of SO has been proposed. SO (with a current value of US $0.60-0.70 per liter) can be readily used for the production of epoxidized soybean oil (ESO). This ESO will be employed for the production of a couple of novel bio-resins, i.e., non-isocyanate polyurethanes (NIPUs) (the conventional polyurethanes are traded at up to US $10 per liter- estimates are even higher for NIPUs), and for the aromatic epoxy-networks from SO and eugenol (conventional epoxy resins are currently traded at US $3 per liter). The economy of the products seems to be alluring: we estimate an investment of US $500,000 for establishing a small-size plant results in an annual benefit exceeding US $150,000. Moreover, the proposed strategies for the synthesis of these resins are of conventional types used for well-known poly-condensation and radical polymerization processes with minor modifications. The establishment of the technology is rather feasible: the future scale-up of the processes was considered carefully, the use of complex technologies, expensive solvents, toxic organometallic catalysts, problematic reactants, and expensive separation-purification steps have been avoided. Details of the methods will be discussed in the subsequent sections in brief.
Description and Justification
The United States is one of the major soybean producers, with huge surplus of soybean oil (SO). This surplus of SO can be well-employed to promote sustainable development and for flourishing the soybean-producing states, i.e., South Dakota. South Dakota is an agricultural state, with more than $10 billion worth of agricultural products sold annually. Soybean has covered 5.6 million acres of farmlands in SD, and this state has been among the top 10 states in acreage for soybean cultivation. Yet, the welfare info claims that “… one out of every 7.2 residents of South Dakota lives in poverty” https://www.welfareinfo.org/poverty-rate/south-dakota/. This illuminates the crucial role of using SO for reducing the poverty rate in the state. Increasing the yield of the soybean plant is one strategy, which is assigned to the agricultural studies and farmers, but, the efficient use of the cultivated soybean and making more profit from it is the mission we would be in charge of.
Over the past two decades, the C=C double bonds, or the ester groups presented in the soybean oil have been functionalized to produce a fistful of sustainable materials, which have been subsequently used for various applications including epoxy resins, adhesives, lubricants, solvents, cleaners, paints, inks, crayons, and foams. Soybean processing is well-known, however, extracting novel products from soybean derivatives needs more research and efforts. In this proposal, the route for the synthesis of two novel value-added products from SO is presented. After a careful study of soybean current applications, the involved chemistry, and based on 6 years of experience in the resin field, we developed a platform for the utilization of SO for the production of a couple of novel bioresins. This platform suggests the production of non-isocyanate polyurethanes and aromatic epoxy-networks from SO and eugenol.
The aromatic epoxy-networks are designed to be the substitute for the current epoxy acrylate resins (EAs), which are produced from the esterification of diglycidyl ether bisphenol A (DGEBA) resin with acrylic or methacrylic acid. Similar to EA, these resins would have versatile applications, i.e., as surface coatings, adhesives, and composites used in military, aerospace, automotive industries, etc.
Polyurethanes (PUs) are among the most broadly applied polymers, with almost unlimited possibilities of application, i.e., in clothing, footwear, furniture, coating, foams, adhesives, flooring, and automotive. The market studies estimate the global usage of PUs will reach to ~57 billion by the end of 2025. Conventionally, PUs are synthesized from fossil-based resources, through the polyaddition of a polyol and a polyisocyanate. Apart from their nonrenewable origins, isocyanates are classified as potential human carcinogens, which cause a variety of severe health issues. Considering the prolonged occupational exposure hazards, the environmental regulations seek to limit the use of isocyanates in PUs synthesis. Therefore, many attempts have been devoted to find methods to synthesize nonisocyanate polyurethanes (NIPUs), where the isocyanate has been avoided by the reaction of carbonates with other amines. In this proposal, we suggest the use of ESO for the synthesis of NIPUs.
Commercial Potential
Global price of SO is estimated to be in range of US $0.60-0.70 per liter, whereas for epoxidized oil, this is in range of US $1.20-2.00 per liter —up to 3-fold higher. The global price of vinyl epoxy resins or EA – an epoxy resin with the better properties, would be even higher, in range of US $2.00-3.00 per liter. A leap from these so called “first-generation” value-added products into the second-generation products, results in more profits: 1 liter of polyurethane resin is estimated to be traded up to US $10. These prices have been estimated based on the average prices provided by the current Chinese vendors (accessed www.alibaba.com, 2019). The world consumption of these resins is enormous and has been increased steadily over the last 50 years. The Global ESO Market accounted for US $395.7 million in 2016 and projected to grow at a CAGR of 13.5% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2024. The global epoxy resin market size is projected to reach US $8.77 billion by 2021, registering a CAGR of 5.77% between 2016 and 2021 (https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/epoxy-resins.asp). The global polyurethane market size was estimated at US $65.5 billion in 2018, exhibiting a CAGR of 7.0% between 2018 and 2025 (https://www.grandviewresearch.com/Plastics/Polymers&Resins/polyurethane). So, market is waiting for us.
Moreover, in this proposal the future scale-up of the processes was considered carefully. Therefore, the use of complex technologies, expensive solvents, toxic organometallic catalysts, problematic reactants, and expensive separation-purification steps have been avoided. The technology required for the synthesis of these resin is of conventional type — used for well-known poly-condensation and radical polymerization processes with minor modifications. It is simple, safe, and works under the ambient conditions, and can be readily employed, even at decentralized chemical factories. Our decent estimate for the budget required for establishing a small-size plant (i.e., at the farm) with the production capacity of 60,000 kg per year — which can work during the winter time or when there would be no cultivations or farming-1 shift — would be no more than US $500,000. If a net benefit margin of just $2.50 per liter of the resin is considered, the annual benefit exceeds US $150,000 per year.