VALUE ENHANCEMENT FOR GRAIN HULLS THROUGH PRODUCTION HIGH PERFORMANCE CARBONIZED FIBER FOR SUSTAINABLE LIGHTWEIGHT COMPOSITES AND XYLOSE AS A VALUE ADDED COPRODUCT

Our proposed project provides engineered synthesis and development of high-performance, low-cost and scalable carbonized fibers using the agricultural residue for 3D printing and injection molding applications, while simultaneously extracting Xylose as a value added co-product. By completion of the proposed project we expect that such tangible utilization of low-cost agricultural process residue can substantially add to the biobased products industry that generates $459 billion biobased products and employment for ~4.65 million workers in 2016 according to a report published by the USDA Biopreferred program in 2018. To realize this goal, PIs Dr. Satyavolu and Dr. Kate from University of Louisville will partner with Owensboro grain to realize four key objectives discussed below and provide five value additions as proposed in the project overviewthat make our proposed engineered products and technology scalable, low-cost and high-performance.Objective 1 - Extract, modify and functionalize natural fibers from grain hulls via selective C5-hydrolysis and simultaneously producing value added co-product xylose (low calorie natural sugar)Objective 2 - Produce carbonized fibers by thermal and non-thermal techniques.Objective 3 - Promote property enhancement through fiber sizing of carbonized fiber, characterize their material properties, and compare with off-the-shelf carbon fibers.Objective 4 - Synthesize carbonized fiber composites to understand, determine and model mixing, extrusion, multi-material stability, interfacial stability by understanding chemical and composition modification (fiber content, and fiber size) on composite materials properties; analyze and characterize when 3D printed and injection molded.