By John Lovett
A handful of rice bran, or many other agricultural byproducts, may not look like much to most people. But in Ali Ubeyitogullari’s eyes, they are building blocks strong enough for a spacecraft.
The National Science Foundation recently presented a $471,477 CAREER Award to Ubeyitogullari, a food engineer with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, to support research on developing sustainable aerogels from agricultural and food-processing waste.
Aerogels are very light, mechanically strong solids that can be used in a variety of high-tech applications, including insulation for spacecraft, waterproofing and fireproofing. They are formed by removing the liquid from a gel and replacing it with air without collapsing the solid structure. The result is extremely high porosity – often 90 to 99 percent air – with pores typically in the nanometer range. The result is something with very low density and thermal conductivity.
Ubeyitogullari’s research aims to create aerogels from renewable and biodegradable agricultural byproducts, such as rice bran using supercritical carbon dioxide drying, offering a sustainable alternative while adding value to materials that would otherwise be considered waste. Supercritical carbon dioxide drying preserves the inner nanostructure of the gels, which is not possible with air or freeze drying.
Source : uada.edu