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BIOSOURCED POLYOLS

Biosourced raw materials, that is to say from renewable resources, are on the rise for obvious economic (cost reduction), ecological (reduction of greenhouse gas emissions), environmental and political reasons.
Vegetable oils, starch, sugars, cellulose and lignin are the main bio-sourced raw materials and are already present in many sectors such as energy, industry , fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and food. They are transformed (via chemical reactions) into polyols which are then used for many applications, including the synthesis of bio-based polymers .

Synthesis of biosourced polyols from vegetable oils

A vegetable oil is a mixture of triglycerides (triesters) formed by the condensation of fatty acids and glycerol. The high number of types of fatty acids (up to 24), their chain length, degree of unsaturation, stereochemistry of the double bonds makes it possible to envisage the production of multiple and varied polyol type compounds.

Polyols from naturally hydroxylated vegetable oil, such as castor oil, castor oil, etc.
Polyols resulting from an increase in the number of OH by transesterification with polyols of the Glycerol, Pentaerythritol, Sorbitol type, etc.

Polyols resulting from the Epoxidation/Hydroxylation of vegetable oils
Polyols resulting from the Hydroformylation/Reduction of vegetable oils
Polyols from Ozonolysis/Reduction of vegetable oils

A number of commercial biosourced polyols derived from vegetable oil (soya, castor, sunflower, rapeseed, etc.) already exist and are mainly used in the synthesis of polyurethanes : Renuva™ from Dow Chemical, BiOH® from Cargill, Agrol® from BioBased Technologies , Jeffadd™ from Huntsman, Soyol® from Urethane Soy Systems, Lupranol® from BASF, Radia® from Oléon....

Synthesis of biosourced polyols from polysaccharides (starch, cellulose, polyose, etc.)

Polysaccharides are also a major source of biobased polyols, especially for the synthesis of polyurethanes and polyesters .

Polyols derived from starch

Starch is a polysaccharide composed of the covalent sequence of D-glucose units which is found in many plant resources (wheat, potato, corn, cassava, etc.). It can undergo multiple chemical modifications at the level of the primary and secondary alcohol functions of the glycosyl units through reactions of oxidation, esterification, etherification, hydrogenation, etc. For example, its complete acid hydrolysis releases 98 to 99% of D-glucose in the form of two homopolymers, Amylose (linear) and Amylopectin (branched).
Maltitol (4-O-α-glucopyranosyl-D-sorbitol) is a disaccharide polyol which contains 9 hydroxyl -OH groups and which comes from the processing of maltose isolated by vegetable fermentation from starchy cereals, usually corn.

A number of commercial biosourced polyols derived from polysaccharides already exist: Cerenol™ (Dupont de Nemours) is a polyol derived from corn and is used for the synthesis of polyurethane fibres. Neosorb® (based on Sorbitol obtained by hydrogenation of Glucose) and Polysorb® (based on Isosorbide , obtained by dehydration of Sorbitol ) are two polyols marketed by Roquette.

Polyols from natural sugars

Common sugars from fruits, plants and honey are used after chemical reaction in the polyurethane and epoxy industry. We are talking about Glucose, Fructose, Sucrose etc… which are generally alkoxylated: Glucose propoxylate [159170-54-4]; Sucrose Propoxylate [9049-71-2]

Synthesis of biobased polyols from lignin

Lignin is a natural polymer , the most abundant on earth after cellulose and which contains a multitude of phenolic and aliphatic hydroxyl groups which can be isolated in the form of biobased polyols after various chemical depolymerization reactions. The three precursors are p-Coumaryl, Sinapyl , and Coniferyl alcohols .

Lignin is mainly used for the production of polyurethane foams that are highly degradable by fungi, followed by elastomers as well as adhesives for wood.