When it comes to 3D printing, the sky is the limit. As 3D printing technology continues to advance, applications can be as far reaching as airplane and automobile parts to medical devices and even anatomically correct, biocompatible models. Although 3D printing technology is developing at a rapid pace, the technology itself is not new. It emerged in the 1980s as a means of creating rapid prototypes. In recent years the applications for 3D printed models have evolved with the available hardware, software, and printable materials. Evolving technology, paired with the creative and innovative minds of scientists, engineers, and physicians, has been the launching pad for developments within 3D printing technology specific to healthcare. One way 3D printing technology is poised to create better patient outcomes is in creating an anatomically and patient-specific models to aid in surgery and medical procedures. With the capability to 3D ...
Nylon is used to fashion numerous industrial and consumer goods ranging from clothes to carpets. But most of it is produced from petrochemicals. So a small company has devised a way to make adipic acid, a building block for nylon 6,6, from sustainable feedstocks, reports Timothy Hurst for Earth & Industry.
He writes:
Verdezyne, which just opened a pilot plant in Carlsbad, California, has developed a fermentation process to make adipic acid from renewable sources like non-food based vegetable oils. The plant is the first-ever to produce bio-based adipic acid at scale from a non-petroleum source. And according to the company CEO, they can do so cheaper and with fewer greenhouse gas emissions than traditional methods of production.
Verdezyne’s CEO E. William Radney told Hurst that “customers want a nylon that is not petroleum-based,” and that life-cycle analysis shows that Verdezyne’s process will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately two tons per ton of adipic acid.
Hurst notes that current processes used to make adipic acid from petrochemicals yield as much as four tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions per ton of adipic acid.
Verdezyne is eyeing the textiles, carpet, and engineered plastics market. The company is currently working on scale-up of the new process, and is in discussions with various partners for commercialization, but hopes to be in production in about 18 months.
For now, Hurst writes, “Verdezyne expects to produce about 5 to 15 kilograms of the bio-adipic acid per week, just a tiny sliver of the nearly 5 million gallons of adipic acid produced every week using petrochemicals.”
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