Project to develop recyclable polyurethane foam wins $10,000 Dow SISCA prize

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (12/09/2015)—A team of four Ph.D. candidates in the University of Minnesota's College of Science and Engineering won the Dow Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge Award for their project aimed at developing polyurethane foam that can be recycled.

The award, made possible by a collaboration between the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment and the Dow Chemical Company, recognizes and rewards students and universities for innovation and research that encourages and promotes sustainable solutions to the world’s most pressing social, economic and environmental problems. The competition is open to full-time graduate and professional students enrolled at all campuses of the University of Minnesota.

“Polyurethane foams are useful and important materials that are utilized in a range of applications including mattresses, seat cushions and home insulation,” says Tessie Panthani, project team member and chemical engineering and materials science Ph.D. candidate. “Unfortunately, the majority of polyurethane foams are derived from nonrenewable resources, do not degrade in the environment, and have chemical structures that preclude these materials from being recycled by melt reprocessing.”

To address those limitations, the winning team, which also includes Ph.D. candidates Alex Mannion (Chemical Engineering and Materials Science), Debbie Schneiderman (Chemistry) and Marie Vanderlaan (Chemistry), developed a polyol—the main building block for polyurethane foam—made from renewable sources that can degrade into environmentally benign products or be recycled, creating a closed-loop life cycle.

The winning project was one of 24 submitted to the University’s Dow SISCA challenge, one of 18 such competitions around the world. Judges were from Dow Chemical, Metropolitan Council Environmental Services and the University of Minnesota.

Runner-up Gabriel Al-Ghalith, a biomedical informatics and computational biology student and researcher at the University's Biotechnology Institute, received $2,500 for developing techniques that use microbes as environmental and geochemical sensors.

Other finalists were:

• Snober Ahmed (bioproducts and biosystems science, engineering and management, College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Sciences) —Selenium Nanomaterials and Devices for Mercury Removal from Water and Gas Flue
• John Brockgreitens (bioproducts and biosystems science, engineering and management, College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Sciences) — Food Packaging Sensors for Continuous Monitoring of Food Spoilage
• Abhirup Datta (biostatistics, School of Public Health) and Farideh Fazayeli (computer science, CSE) — Global Mapping of Plant Traits
• Lauren Jackson (plant pathology,College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Sciences) — Characterization and Optimization of Ligninolytic Systems to Improve Human and Environmental Health
• Peter T. Krenzke and Stephen J. Sedler (mechanical engineering, College of Science and Engineering) — Solar Fuels From Water and Carbon Dioxide via the Ceria Redox Cycle
• Maria Kristine McClintock (chemical engineering, College of Science and Engineering) — Developing a Portfolio of Value-added Monomers from Fermentation of Lignocellulosic Feedstocks
• Matthew Overby (computer science, College of Science and Engineering) — Efficient Simulation of Urban Heat Transfer
• Hao Tian (mechanical engineering, College of Science and Engineering) — Variable Timing Active Valve Technology and “Steer-by-Wire” Valve Operation for Energy Efficient Fluid Power Systems

The University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment seeks lasting solutions to Earth’s biggest challenges through research, partnerships and leadership development. For more information on IonE, visit environment.umn.edu. For more information on the Dow SISCA program, see dow.com/sustainability/studentchallenge.