New advance in biorenewable FDCA-based polyesters: Multiple scale-up from lab bench to pilot plant

To accelerate the industrialization of 2,5-furan dicarboxylic acid (FDCA) based polyesters, it is essential to investigate the properties of FDCA-based polyesters prepared through scale-up experiments. In this work, poly(ethylene furanoate) (PEF) and poly(trimethylene furanoate) (PTF) were synthesized through lab bench (100 mL flask), pilot plant (5 and 150 L steel reactors). Additionally, the solid-state polycondensation industry was applied to enhance the intrinsic viscosities ([η]) of PEF and PTF to satisfy processing requirements in diverse fields, and the effect of the [η] on the machining, mechanical, and barrier property were further investigated. The results demonstrated that the tensile strengths of PEF and PTF prepared by 150 L steel reactor were 33.3% and 39.2% higher than these of 100 mL flask, which is attributed to the large-scale reactor can provide more accurate control for temperature, vacuum pressure, and mechanical stirring, etc. Moreover, FDCA-based polyesters with a high [η] have better proprieties. PEF and PTF demonstrated corresponding tensile strengths of 93.2 and 80.2 MPa and elastic modulus of 2.1 and 1.8 GPa when their [η] value is greater than 0.9 dL/g. Simultaneously, PEF and PTF have high barrier property for oxygen (0.019 and 0.022 barrer), carbon dioxide (0.018 and 0.032 barrer), and water vapor barrier (2.7 × 10−14 and 2.9 × 10−14 g·cm/cm2·s·Pa). Subsequently, a pilot scale (3000 L steel reactor) was used to prepare ton-scale PEF resin, fully meeting the application and development of FDCA-based polyester. The obtained results establish an entirely novel foundation for achieving large-scale applications and provide guidance for the industrial scale-up of FDCA-based polyesters.