Continuous Isosorbide Production From Sorbitol Using Solid Acid Catalysis

This is a final report for a project funded by the US Department of Agriculture and managed by the US Department of Energy. The Iowa Corn Promotion Board was the principal contracting entity for the grant. The Iowa Corn Promotion Board subcontracted with General Electric, Pacific Northwest National Lab and New Jersey Institute of Technology to conduct research in this project. The Iowa Corn Promotion Board and General Electric provided cost share for the project. The purpose of this diverse collaboration was to integrate both the conversion and the polymer applications into one project and increase the likelihood of success. This project has led to additional collaborations among other polymer companies. The goals of the project were to develop a renewable route to isosorbide for commercialization that is economically competitive with all existing production technologies and to develop new applications for isosorbide in various products such as polymers and materials. Under this program a novel process for the production of isosorbide was developed and evaluated. The novel process converts corn based sorbitol into isosorbide using a solid catalyst with integrated water removal and product recovery. In addition the work under this program has identified several novel products based on isosorbide chemistries. These market applications include: epoxy resins, UV stabilizers, plasticizers and polyesters. These market applications have commercial interest within the current polymer industry. This report contains an overview summary of the accomplishments. Six inventions and four patent applications have been written as a result of this project. Additional data will be published in the patent applications. The data developed at New Jersey Institute of Technology was presented at two technical conferences held in June of 2006. Several companies have made inquiries about using this material in their products