Dr. Aman Ullah

Abstract:

In recent years, there has been a notable shift towards exploring renewable biomass as a viable alternative to traditional petrochemical products, driven by escalating energy demands and environmental concerns. The utilization of waste resources especially lipids has emerged as a pivotal strategy in advancing sustainable development, owing to their abundant availability, inherent functionality, potential for biodegradability, and capacity for CO2 reduction. Moreover, these resources offer a diverse array of monomers, rendering lipids and waste biomass particularly promising for the development of renewable biomaterials. This presentation will delve into the solvent-free conversion of lipids sourced from waste streams like waste cooking oil and lipids extracted from spent foul. Our focus lies in transforming these lipids into monomers and synthesizing biopolymers, with a special emphasis on polymers endowed with self-healing and reprocessing capabilities. This task poses significant challenges, particularly in maintaining mechanical and thermal properties during reprocessing, especially when utilizing biomass-derived monomers. Remarkably, our research demonstrates that the healed and reprocessed biopolymers exhibit mechanical properties and thermal stabilities comparable to the original material after undergoing self-healing and reprocessing. Furthermore, these developed polymers boast excellent thermal stability, rendering them suitable for a myriad of applications. The ability to achieve complete lipid conversion into monomers and diverse biopolymers under solvent-free conditions presents an alluring proposition, both academically and industrially.