TY - GEN A1 - Krey, Adrian A1 - Zenz, Vitus A1 - Widera, Karolin A1 - List, Manuela A1 - Muscat, Dirk A1 - Strübbe, Nicole ED - Ediciones Uniandes, T1 - Reactive Extrusion of Lignocellulosic Biomass to Produce Biopolymer Monomers using High-Energy Radiation and Catalytic Acids T2 - Proceedings of the 39th International Conference of the Polymer Processing Society (PPS-39) N2 - The increasing prevalence of bio-based and biodegradable plastics as an alternative to traditional plastics derived from crude oil is a noteworthy trend. Polybutylene succinate (PBS), a plastic produced from succinic acid, is among the promising materials for the future. However, the production of bio-based succinic acid through biotechnical processes in controlled environments presents challenges. This process leads to increased costs and is currently not economically competitive compared to crude oil-based succinic acid production. In addition to succinic acid, levulinic acid is another monomer produced in the same process. A novel approach to the digestion of biomass has been developed to address the issue of biotechnological production of bio-based platform chemicals. This innovative process employs microwave radiation, pressure, and temperature to convert wood residues into succinic acid and levulinic acid. Various catalyst concentrations and biomass ratios were tested in a batch process, with high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) and liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC/MS) analyses revealing the formation of succinic acid, levulinic acid, formic acid, and 2 oxoglutaric acid. The results demonstrate that microwaves combined with a metal salt catalyst can be used to produce platform chemicals from lignocellulosic biomass. To further advance the continuous production of PBS, a twin-screw extruder was modified and adapted after the successful results obtained from the batch processes. This setup enables additional experiments to evaluate the transferability of batch process results to continuous reactions, facilitating the scale-up and economic viability of the overall PBS production process in the future. KW - Succinic Acid KW - Levulinic Acid KW - Biopolymer KW - Microwave KW - Wood Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.51573/Andes.PPS39.SS.BBB.6 SP - 329 EP - 337 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Zenz, Vitus A1 - Muscat, Dirk A1 - Strübbe, Nicole T1 - Development of a new granulate feeding system for gas pressurized extrusion processes T2 - ANTEC 2023 N2 - One major problem of a continuous process like plastic extrusion is their incapability to deal with non-local gas pressure. This is an inherent problem because a continuous process has an open end in the feeding port where pressure can escape. In this study a novel feeding system was developed to enable granulate feeding into gas pressurized processes inside a single- or twin-screw extruder. With this apparatus gas pressure can be applied inside the extrusion process. The apparatus separates the pressurized extruder from the dosing equipment that feeds the extruder. It keeps the pressure inside the system while continuously feeding new material into the process. A small-scale prototype was designed for proof-of concept. The small size of the prototype was able to handle small amounts of granulates of around 100 - 200 g/h. An applied gas pressure of 8 bar was achieved. In future optimizations, throughput can be increased and maximum applied gas pressure towards 15-20 bar. KW - Plastic feeding KW - Granulate KW - Extrusion KW - Compounding KW - Reactive Extrusion Y1 - 2023 PB - SPE ANTEC ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zenz, Vitus A1 - Muscat, Dirk A1 - Strübbe, Nicole T1 - So wird Bernsteinsäure aus Holzreststoffen gewonnen JF - Plastverarbeiter N2 - Die effiziente Umwandlung von lignocellulosehaltiger Biomasse wie Restholz ist eine wissenschaftliche sowie technologische Herausforderung weltweit. Die Technische Hochschule Rosenheim entwickelt gemeinsam mit Partnern ein neues Verfahren zur Herstellung von Bernsteinsäure aus Holzreststoffen. KW - Bernsteinsäure KW - Reaktive Extrusion Y1 - 2023 VL - 2023 IS - 04 SP - 22 EP - 25 PB - Hüthig GmbH CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - GEN A1 - Strübbe, Nicole A1 - Muscat, Dirk A1 - Zenz, Vitus ED - European Patent Office, T1 - DEVICE FOR THE PRODUCTION OF BIOPOLYMERS FROM BIOMASS (EP4130532A1) N2 - Pressure lock (10), extruding apparatus (50) for high pressure extrusion, process for producing biopolymers from biomass and use of the extruding apparatus for a process for producing biopolymers from biomass allowing continuous operation of a high pressure process. KW - Pressure KW - Extrusion Y1 - 2023 ER -