SBIR Phase I: Sustainable antioxidants for industrial process fluids

Award ID: 2222215

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to develop bio-based antioxidant products for industrial processes. Commercial development of peptide antioxidants has been limited for use in consumer, food, or therapeutic applications. This project will develop peptide antioxidants derived from the enzymatic digestion of agricultural biomass as alternatives to synthetic antioxidants used in the processing and storage of industrial fluids. Although synthetic antioxidants are critical for the stabilization of many industrial processes, they are derived from petroleum and tend to have toxicity and/or environmental safety concerns. The products resulting from this effort will be first-in-class innovations; safer and more environmentally responsible than existing products. Project activities will validate peptide performance in the initial target application area: the stabilization of vinyl monomer fluids and processes. This research will initially focus on vinyl monomer processing as well as four additional industrial markets where sustainable antioxidants could have a high impact. The estimated consumption of synthetic antioxidants in the five combined markets in 2022 will be close to 1 million tons. This SBIR Phase I project seeks to develop a bio-based antioxidant product derived from sustainable materials and suitable for industrial process fluids. Antioxidant peptides derived from the enzymatic digestion of plant-based proteins have the potential to replace synthetic antioxidants in industrial processes. This project focuses on process compatibility, product stability, and antioxidative performance as key technical hurdles. This project will create a library of antioxidative peptides generated by the enzymatic digestion of plant proteins. This library will then be tested for the solubility of peptides with representative fluids under process conditions, potential formulation design, and for thermal and storage stability of the designed formulations. This project will lower technical barriers to advancing the commercial development of peptide antioxidants for applications across many industries. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Benaiah Schrag