United States of America, As Represented by the Secretary of Agriculture

Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation

Ronald Sabo

Shaoqin Gong

Junyong Zhu

Zhiyong Cai

Qifeng Zheng

Alireza Javadi

Craig Clemons

Highly porous, lightweight, and sustainable hybrid organic aerogels with ultra-low densities and excellent material properties and methods for preparing them are provided, including, e.g., PVA/CNF/GONS, RF/CNF/GONS, and PVA/CNF/MWCNT. The aerogels are modified to have a super-hydrophobic surface, thus leading to an extremely low swelling ratio and rate of moisture absorption.

Sustainable hybrid organic aerogels and methods and uses thereof

The present invention relates to systems, compositions and methods for the conversion of lignocellulosic material to recalcitrant cellulose and hydrolyzed sugars and products produced therefrom (e.g., biofuel, nano-fibrillated cellulose). In particular, the invention provides novel fractionation processes configured to integrate production of hydrolyzed sugars (e.g., for biofuel production) and recalcitrant cellulose (e.g., for nano-fibrillated cellulose production) from lignocellulosic material and methods of using the same (e.g., in the production of biofuel and nano-fibrillated cellulose). The invention is also directed to nanocellulose with morphologies of having a less entangled and slightly branched fibril network, and having the same thermal stability as of that of the initial lignocellulose feedstock.

Methods for integrated conversion of lignocellulosic material to sugars or biofuels and nano-cellulose

Growing community of inventors

Sun Prairie, WI, United States of America

Ronald Sabo