Page 74 - Innovation Delaware 2021

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
waste into renewable chemicals and cellulose. At a time when the need for sustainable materials is greater than ever, this takes something that before was disposed of and turns it into a valuable component for multiple industries.
“We’ve developed a process where we can take a big, amorphous structure and break it up into smaller chemical units,” Gottlieb says. “You can then work with them the way you would with petrochemicals.”
One of the first applications the scientists discovered
could be developed from lignin was a piece of tape, similar to what one “would get from an office supply store,” according
to Gottlieb. Although others had tried to apply lignin in various ways, the Lignolix process allows the material to withstand higher temperatures without becoming gooey and unmanageable. Although most people think of adhesives in terms of tapes and glues for the home, lignin can be adapted to any situation in which “you want to stick two things together,” Gottlieb says. And though the “cosmetic industry” connotes
makeup, it is really anything that can be found in the personal care realm.
Lignolix gets its lignin supply from a variety of providers. The pulp mills are generally located in the South, from North Carolina to Georgia. But Delaware breweries like Midnight Oil Brewing Company and Autumn Arch Beer Project are sources of lignin, too.
Gottlieb can’t point to one bolt-of-lightning moment that inspired him and his team to start Lignolix. “It was more of a slow buildup,” he says. Once the team saw the opportunities to distribute the amounts of lignin they had isolated and how it was possible to create different quantities of it, they realized it was possible for a commercial concern to be successful.
Lignolix received one of the State of Delaware’s EDGE Grants in 2020, along with support from Delaware FastPass. Other state grants, along with national funding, have also helped, and Gottlieb says more grant applications “are in the pipeline.”
—Michael Bradley
Chemours: Accelerating Green Energy
TApplications of Hydrogen
wo decades ago, the concepts of solar and wind power were still intriguing but somewhat unrealistic, due
to the cost and supply of panels and turbines. Today, solar and wind play much larger roles in creating
power across the U.S., and there can be no question that their responsibilities are growing.
“Where we are sitting today with hydrogen is where solar panels and windmills were 20 years ago,” says VICTOR LUSNARDI, hydrogen economy venture leader at Wilmington-based Chemours. “But it’s not going to take 20 years to get to that point. We’re aiming with our innovation to make that faster.”
Chemours was founded in July 2015 as a spinoff of DuPont, and a big part of its work in creating hydrogen fuel cells that can serve a variety of purposes is its use of Nafion, a DuPont product. The membrane, which can be stacked in large combinations, is able to separate hydrogen and oxygen from water to create a clean energy source that has water as its only byproduct.
As the world works to become less dependent on carbon-based fuels, the better to preserve the environment and slow the growth of climate change, hydrogen is a valuable and versatile weapon.
It can be used in fuel cells that can power vehicles and provide electricity, or it can be burned.
“If you are going to zero carbon, the only totally green portable energy is water,” says RANDY KING, Chemours’ vice president of technology. “If you want to have hydrogen in your tool box, you have to be able to isolate it in a cost-effective way. As people start driving toward net zero [emissions], they need hydrogen.”
Around the world, nations are embracing hydrogen as a fuel source more and more. Lusnardi reports that in Australia, a
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company is building generators that provide backup power not with diesel but with fuel cells. He also says Europe is five years ahead of the U.S. in hydrogen fuel cell research, thanks to increased grants from governments. “You’re going to see us catch up,” he says.
Some of the world’s biggest auto manufacturers, including Toyota, Honda and GM, are looking at how fuel cells can be implemented. King reports that in some experimental circumstances, heavy-duty trucks were able to operate for 12 hours with the cells.
The future is based on how scalable and reliable it can all
be. It’s good to create some smaller energy opportunities with hydrogen, but as companies learn
to create cells on larger scales, costs will go down, and it will be easier to deliver products. For Chemours, its partnership with the University of Delaware, where its research center is located, is key to continued work in isolating hydrogen and helping companies use it more effectively.
“It’s considered the Swiss Army knife of energy,” Lusnardi says. “You can make electricity with fuel cells at a good
conversion rate, or you can just burn it.”
VICTOR LUSNARDI
RANDY KING
—Michael Bradley