Development of Ligno-Polyol for the production of Polyurethanes

The overall objective of this work is to explore a new non-food renewable supply of industrially viable polyol to make polyurethane products for industrial applications. Lignin has been considered as an industrial waste coming from the paper and textile fiber industries. From a chemical point of view lignin is a natural polyphenol and polyol. Due to its high molecular weight and its complex structure, however, those functional groups are not easily accessible. As a consequence the industrial application of lignin is very limited. In this work, different approaches have been used for the incorporation of kraft lignin in petroleum-derived commercial polyols for the production of polyurethanes (PU) with minimum energy and chemical used and also minimum negative impact on the environment. The results have demonstrated that, beside lignin chemistry, lignin size and morphology, applied shear force, mixing temperature, and chemistry of polyol have also great influence on the dispersion and interaction of lignin with petroleum based polyols and thus on the PU performance. In this development the studied lignin was well dispersed and interacted with the polyols and they also participated in the PU network structure, resulting in great improvement in the glass transition temperature and the mechanical properties as well.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye