TAGS: Sustainability and Bioplastics Cost Efficiency
OzoneBio, a Canadian cleantech start-up recently produced the first, lab certified bio-adipic acid employing bio-catalytic technology and using wood waste for the feedstock.
In addition, Ozonebio has demonstrated that the same bio-based adipic acid can undergo polymeric synthesis to become nylon 66, a high performance polymer used in everything from car parts to yoga pants.
Zombie Cells Catalysis Produces 98% Conversion Efficiency
The $30 billion Nylon 66 industry currently uses petrochemical-derived adipic acid, and the process is a major source of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide. OzoneBio’s breakthrough demonstrates that adipic acid production can be petroleum and emissions free. OzoneBio has established OzoNyl as its trademark for nylon 66 made with bio-adipic acid.
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The world can’t stop using the Nylon66 polymer,” says Khorcheska Batyrova, co-founder of OzoneBio, “
because it is one of the most resilient polymers out there and has countless uses. But we know that we can produce zero-emissions bio-adipic acid using our unique bio-catalytic approach, Nylon 66 can become much less damaging to the climate.”
OzoneBio received certification on September 25, 2023 from the University of Georgia’s Natural Products and Biobase Testing Laboratory stating that OzoneBio's bio-adipic acid was entirely bio-based in origin. This certification uses C13/C14 carbon isotope analysis that can distinguish between bio-based and synthetic petroleum derived chemicals.
The key to Ozonebio’s breakthrough process is the use of a “zombie cells catalysis” that converts toxic and challenging wood-derived feedstocks into bio-adipic acid. “
To stabilize our novel enzymes, we leave them inside the cells where they are naturally stable, but at the same time we don’t keep the cells alive, nor do we let them die; the cells remain in an intermediate state and we call them- zombie cells,” says Batyrova. OzoneBio’s catalysis produces 98% conversion efficiency to bio-adipic acid from wood-derived feedstocks, which means the feedstock is almost fully converted into adipic acid, and final steps of purification result in a 60-70% yield.
OzoneBio is now optimizing and scaling the technology and discussing partnerships with multi-national chemical companies and major sportswear brands.
Vital Role in the Reduction of Nitrous Oxide Emissions
Apart from its patented pending bio-catalytic “zombie” technology, OzoneBio stands out in its use of waste feedstocks to create adipic acid. Most efforts to date to create bio-based adipic acid have focused on sugar-derived fermentation using feedstocks such as coconut oil or sugarcane.
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Those approaches use crops that are likely to be too expensive as a feedstock because there are many demands for their use. That is why we are using wood-derived waste, which is abundant and cheap, and we are working on upcycling other waste feedstocks as well. Our technology is perfect for upcycling waste products, unlike fermentation-based technologies that are limited to sugar as the main feedstock and require extensive metabolic engineering along with high CAPEX and OPEX,” said Batyrova.
From a climate standpoint, OzoneBio’s breakthrough will play a vital role in the reduction of nitrous oxide emissions, which are 300 times more potent than CO
2 as a greenhouse gas. The production of 1 kg of petroleum- derived adipic acid releases 140 liters of nitrous oxide, which is the equivalent of 42,000 liters of CO
2. Global petroleum-based adipic acid production leads to at least 60 million tons/year of greenhouse gas emissions.
Learn all about polyamides and its types. Also, understand what makes them an ideal choice in high-end engineering applications.
Source: OzoneBio
