• HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Thursday, January 21, 2021
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Bioengineering

Synthesizing textiles from sugar

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
April 1, 2014
in Bioengineering
1
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

In the future, the clothes you wear could be made from sugar. Researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) have discovered a new chemical process that can convert adipic acid directly from sugar.

Synthesizing textiles from sugar

The IBN research team, who invented the new green chemistry method to turn sugar into adipic acid (from left) Dr Ting Lu, Dr Yugen Zhang, Dr Xiukai Li and Dr Guangshun Yi.

Adipic acid is an important chemical used to produce nylon for apparel and other everyday products like carpets, ropes and toothbrush bristles. Commercially, adipic acid is produced from petroleum-based chemicals through the nitric acid oxidation process, which emits large amounts of nitrous oxides, a major greenhouse gas that causes global warming.

IBN Executive Director Professor Jackie Y. Ying said, “In the face of growing environmental concerns over the use of fossil fuels and diminishing natural resources, there is an increasing need for a renewable source for energy and chemicals. We have designed a sustainable and environmentally friendly solution to convert sugar into adipic acid via our patented catalytic process technology.”

Bio-based adipic acid can be synthesized from mucic acid, which is oxidized from sugar; and the mucic acid can be obtained from fruit peels. Current processes are either performed using multiple steps with low product efficiency and yield, or under harsh reaction conditions using high-pressure hydrogen gas and strong acids, which are costly and unsafe.

The new chemical catalytic protocol designed by IBN is simple, efficient and green. To convert mucic acid to adipid acid, the target reaction is deoxydehydration, that is, oxygen and water will be removed simultaneously by reduction and dehydration. The researchers found that by combining deoxydehydration and the transfer hydrogenation reaction – adding an alcohol solvent – in one reactor, they could obtain a high yield of adipic acid at 99% of the starting material. Existing protocols can only achieve a yield of around 60%.

This method is ideal for industrial development because the process can be performed in one or two steps, the end product is pure, and the reaction conditions are mild and safe.

Dr Yugen Zhang, IBN Group Leader in green chemistry and energy said, “This work shows the tremendous potential of developing bio-based adipic acid. We are excited that our new protocol can efficiently convert adipic acid from sugar, bringing us one step closer toward industrialization. To complete this green technology, we are now working on using raw biomass as the feedstock.”

This finding was published recently in the leading Chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition. The work was funded by a grant from the A*STAR Science and Engineering Council to develop chemicals from biomass.

Dr Yugen Zhang’s group also holds patented technologies for converting other valuable chemical intermediates such as 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and furfuraldicarboxylic acid (FDCA) from sugar. HMF is a key platform chemical that can be converted to biofuels and biochemicals, and FDCA can be used to make plastics and polyester. IBN seeks industrial collaborations to commercialize its portfolio of green technologies.

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore, Elena Tan and Nidyah Sani.

Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

blank

Robo-fish

September 19, 2016
blank

Mice born from ‘tricked’ eggs

September 17, 2016

UCLA researchers use stem cells to grow 3-D lung-in-a-dish

September 16, 2016

Sixteen MIT grad students named Siebel Scholars for 2017

September 16, 2016
Next Post
blank

Switching Brain Cells with Less Light

blank

Erasing a genetic mutation

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

POPULAR NEWS

  • IMAGE

    The map of nuclear deformation takes the form of a mountain landscape

    54 shares
    Share 22 Tweet 14
  • People living with HIV face premature heart disease and barriers to care

    64 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16
  • New drug form may help treat osteoporosis, calcium-related disorders

    40 shares
    Share 16 Tweet 10
  • New findings help explain how COVID-19 overpowers the immune system

    35 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Tags

Ecology/EnvironmentTechnology/Engineering/Computer SciencePublic HealthcancerMaterialsInfectious/Emerging DiseasesMedicine/HealthClimate ChangeCell BiologyGeneticsChemistry/Physics/Materials SciencesBiology

Recent Posts

  • Mitochondrial mutation increases the risk of diabetes in Japanese men
  • New study: nine out of ten US infants experience gut microbiome deficiency
  • Catching cancer in the act
  • NASA mission to test technology for satellite swarms
  • Contact Us

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In