(475c) Antimicrobial Bioderived Fatty Acids Based on Fast Pyrolysis Bio-Oil Phenolics

Demand for biorenewable versions of petrochemicals will continue to increase steadily for the foreseeable future. Included are phenolic compounds and their derivatized products. Out of the various biofuels platforms, thermochemical conversion offers one of the strongest opportunities for producing advanced biofuels and refined chemicals, especially phenols. Previous work showed that unsaturated fatty acids from various biomass sources (soybean, brown grease, safflower) can be functionalized with phenol across the FA double bond(s). While phenolic FAs offer a gateway towards antimicrobial coatings that are biorenewable, biobased phenolics still have remained dependent on fossil-derived phenol. We will discuss advancements in biobased antimicrobial coatings, wherein pyrolysis-derived phenols are incorporated in the synthesis, thus making the phenolic FA fully biorenewable. Catalytic fast pyrolysis of switchgrass produced bio-oils with sufficiently high concentrations of phenol and cresols. These one-ring phenolics were extracted and redistilled, yielding a fraction of > 75 wt% phenols. Safflower fatty acid (SAF) and pennycress (PC) oils were hydrolyzed and subsequently functionalized with biophenolics using Ferrierite zeolite catalysts. Excess phenolics were removed using molecular distillation. Yields of biophenolic FAs ranged from 63% up to 76%. Preliminary antimicrobial tests show resistance to strains of listeria bacteria, thus expanding the applicability of fast pyrolysis oil products.