Sustainable materials from renewable protein feedstock and waste rubber

This thesis focuses on developing sustainable materials from underutilized feedstock, namely proteins and waste rubber from used car tires. Valorization of proteins for use in engineering plastics can reduce reliance on fossil fuels for materials manufacturing, as well as increase economic viability of agriculture and biorefinery processes. Strategies have been proposed to address challenges in formulating protein-based plastics, such as protein feedstock and functional group diversity, difficulties in material processing, and undesirable physical and mechanical properties. Methods to devulcanize and recycle used tire rubber, one of the largest polymer waste sources, are also described. The first part of this thesis explores the use of proteins as reinforcing domains in thermoset elastomers. Copolymers were prepared by conjugating proteins to rubbery polymers, and the presence of both components had synergistic effects on material mechanical properties.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctoral

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Chan, Wui Yarn.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Bradley D. Olsen.

• Chemical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/123722

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/123722