Talk:Fluidized bed reactor

Introduction Email

I have been working out the process for converting ethanol to polyethylene and designing a reactor for the process http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Fluidized_bed_reactor. Take a look if you get a chance and let know if you have any feedback. I think creating polyethylene is feasible on a small scale with purchased catalysts, but for greenhouse covering multiple layers with different properties (comonomers) would be necessary for a durable product. This wouldn't immediately be feasible. A fluidized bed reactor could be configured for other processes which are part of GVCS III. Let me know what your priorities are because in two weeks I will be done with my job and have a month before I start at MSU, during this time I would like to help develop the bioplastic and other natural resource processes wikis. During this time I can also advertise the project to different forums and OS groups to try to get user stories and collaborators. Once at MSU I will try to find a professor (of polymer science) to take a look at my proposal and I should have access to spectroscopic tools (I have a fair amount of spectroscopic experience for protein research) to analyse the products.

Marcin Response

That is high quality work, thanks.

Tell me more about catalysts required?

And what about polycellulose production? Could that be a viable glazing material? What are your comments on plasticizers to make your product non-brittle?

Poli response

It's good to know you are interested, this stuff is pretty neat. There is background on catalysts on the polyethylene from ethanol page for the two step conversion http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Polyethylene_from_Ethanol#Ethanol_to_ethylene_conversion http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Polyethylene_from_Ethanol#Ethylene_to_polyethylene_polymerization . The catalysts could be prepared with benchtop machines and from purchased materials and eventually controlled by a hopper. The polymerization catalyst is fairly complicated but designing the reactor to allow many streams of substrate would allow optimization.

Cellulose is made of glucose and I'm not sure of its durability but the optical properties seem pretty good. There's a patent for a polyurethane paired with cellulose film for greenhouses to heat the soil but probably block the photosynthesis wavelengths.http://www.google.com/patents/US20060115615 . There's a patent for cellulose acetate polymerized with an organic acid, preferably a 2-22c chain fatty acid, with sulfuric acid catalyst. http://www.google.com/patents/US20090032995. Seems pretty applicable.

Plasticizer would improve the end products. The above patent applies to polyethylene with a functional group such as ethylene glycol. I will do some research into how to improve polyethylene. There are a lot of possible substrate and catalyst combinations but I can propose a protocol for preliminary catalyst preparation.

What are your thoughts on sourcing materials? Would you want to pursue ethanol or lactic acid production? Demonstrating moldable bioplastics may be doable quicker.

Marcin

Lactic acid would be good. The faster route for proof of concept is preferred.