Principal Investigator Charles Cooney
Cellulose is a sustainable natural polymeric raw material that can be obtained from diverse resources such as urban waste and biomass cultivation. The research intends to investigate new methods of processing and novel application of this critical and renewable resource.
A new strategy of upgrading cellulosic waste and generating high quality cellulosic material will be developed. The research project will launch a program at the Masdar Institute focused on sustainable and green end products development from waste.
Worldwide, there is a growing movement to minimize the environmental impact of polymers and replace them with sustainable, eco-efficient and green materials. This research, once developed, would provide the foreseen sustainable society of Masdar city with environmentally safe materials.Approach
Cellulosic waste produced at Masdar city and in Abu Dhabi will be hydrolyzed to extract fibers with preferred structure and modified properties. The extracted fibers will be explored in novel applications of interest to Abu Dhabi and Masdar city.
Three classes of products are envisioned: (*) sugars(*) depolymerized cellulose(*) highly crystalline nanocellulose
The sugars are a valuable starting point for synthesis of biodegradable polymers, chemicals, and biofuels. The de-polymerized cellulose will be studied as a high value specialty product for use in multiple applications such as food and drug delivery. The cellulose nanocrystals will be utilized as a reinforcing material in selected biopolymeric matrices as an eco-efficient biodegradable material. As such, these materials represent another class of higher value materials that can be manufactured with cellulose as the renewable resource.