Denis Kissounko TDA

1. Dr. Girish Srinivas (P.I.)
gsrinivas@tda.com; 303-940-2321
Dr. Denis Kissounko
dkissounko@tda.com; 303-261-1121
Dr. Brady Clapsaddle
Dr. Alison Robinson
Dr. David Eisenberg
Mr. Darrin Miller
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LIGHTWEIGHT COMPOSITES USING
SUSTAINABLE FEEDSTOCK

2. About TDA
• In Business since 1987
– Privately held – 8 partners
– 120 employees, 30 Ph.D.'s chemistry/engineering
– About $29 million in annual revenue
• Facilities
– Combined 78,000 ft2 laboratory and office space
near Denver, Colorado
– Manufacturing / Scale-up
– Fully-equipped Chemistry and Engineering
Laboratories
– Sorbents: Sulfur removal from natural gas; post-
combustion CO2 capture; heavy-metals removal
– Materials processing and testing
– Process development
• Business Model
– Identify opportunities with industry
– Perform R&D
– Secure intellectual property
– Commercialize technology via spin-offs licensing,
joint ventures, internal business units
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3. TDA’s Business Areas
– Catalysts and Sorbents
• Direct Oxidation Sulfur Recovery (Commercialized 2006)
• SulfaTrap, LLC – spin off company in 2013
– Energetic Materials
– Polymers and Polymer Additives
– Personal Protective Equipment
• CO/VOC oxidation catalysts (sales started 2010)
– Defense and Aerospace Equipment
– Chemical and Biological Defense
• Aircraft cleaners (SSDX-12)
– Carbons
• Fullerene Manufacturing (commercialized 2004 with
Frontier Carbon / Mitsubishi)
• Specialty activated carbons with chemically “designed”
functionality
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C60 (Ih)
C76 (D2) C84 (D2)

4. Project Objectives
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• DoE goal: develop a sustainable (”green”) composite with a low CO2 footprint
for the automotive bumper applications
• TDA goal in response to the DoE’s objective: make a sustainable (”green”)
lightweight composite from a bioderived nylon that has a low CO2 footprint
resin and surface-modified cellulose-based additives for the application as an
automotive bumper
• The overall CO2 footprint reduction comes from both reduction of CO2
emissions from the manufacturing process and the reduction of material’s
weight
• In this project, TDA used a biobased nylon resin with low CO2 footprint (1.9
CO2 equivalent/kg versus, for example, 6.5 CO2 equivalent/kg for petroleum-
based Nylon 6/6)

5. Main Accomplishments
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Tensile samples
• TDA used a biobased nylon resin and cellulosic reinforcements for the
automotive bumpers manufacturing
• Improvements achieved for biobased nylon /cellulose composites vs. neat
biobased nylon
– Flexural performance increase
– Reduction of the environmental degradation rate
– Operational temperature range increase
– Impact energy absorption/dissipation increase
• Improvements achieved for the biobased nylon/cellulose composites vs.
currently used PC/ABS plastic
– Density (~6% reduction) leading to the more lightweight composites
– Tensile modulus and yield stress increase
Surface modified cellulose filler

6. Energy Absorption Automotive
Minimum Requirements
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• DoT 49 CFR Part 581 regulation requires the bumpers to be
protective against 2.5 mph frontal collision with no damage to the
headlamps and engine parts; no damage to the bumper exceeding
a 3/8-inch dent and no more than 3/4-inch displacement
• According to H. Wu paper “A Study of Automotive Energy-
Absorbing Bumpers” in SAE Transactions, 1973, 82, pp. 73-81; such
impact is equivalent to approximately 1.4 kJ for a vehicle of 5,000
lbs gross weight
• The total absorbed energy is a function of the weight and geometry
of a part.

7. Automotive Bumper Impact Preliminary
Computational Simulation
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• Cellulose foam (1” thick)
is modeled as HyperFoam
(elastic) based on data
from [Sun 2023]
• Face sheets (1/8” thick)
are modeled as linear
elastic
– Biobased nylon (Y =
3.00 GPa, Poisson’s
ratio = 0.39)
– PC/ABS (Y = 2.61 GPa,
Poisson’s ratio = 0.35)

8. Model Geometries
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• All three layers (foam and
plastic face sheets) are
modeled as deformable 3D
solids
• The wall and car are
modeled as discrete rigid
solids
• In the next iteration, we
replaced the plastic face
sheets with 2D shells
• All deformable solids have
4 elements through the
thickness

9. Model Analysis
• Abaqus tracks energy throughout the
whole model
• Here are the graphs for kinetic energy
(ALLKE) and strain energy (ALLIE)
• We can see that kinetic energy starts
at 1.42kJ and drops to zero at time
t=0.055s
• Alternatively, strain energy starts at
zero and raises to 1.42 kJ at t=0.055s
• All materials are elastic in this
simulation, so the strain energy is
released back into kinetic energy, but
with a more realistic crushable foam
model, all kinetic energy will be
absorbed
• Our composite meets the minimum
energy absorption requirement
imposed by DoT
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10. Life Carbon Cycle Analysis of
TDA’s Composite Materials
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• Depending on the scope of the LCA, this can include contributions to
Greenhouse Global (GHG) emissions, acidification, production of
microplastics, impact on public health, etc.
• For our preliminary LCA, we focused on GHG emissions associated
with TDA’s composite material vs. the current state-of-the-art
(PC/ABS).
• TDA performed our LCA using SimaPro software, equipped with the
EcoInvent database for emissions information.
• The information gained by an LCA can be used to identify areas for further
improvement to minimize the impact of a given technology.
• We modeled the emissions associated with producing 5 tons of our
composite (including the energy required to produce the functionalized
cellulose).
• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool used to evaluate the environmental
impact of a product across its life.

11. Life Carbon Cycle Analysis of
TDA’s Composite Materials (cont.)
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• This network shows the top 10 contributors to air emissions from producing
the modified cellulose
– Thicker red arrows indicate a larger contribution
– Numbers in the lower left corner represent the kg of CO2 associated with each
input
• This network illustrates that the solvent used in the functionalization process
is the largest contributor to CO2 emissions in this process

12. Life Carbon Cycle Analysis of
TDA’s Composite Materials (cont.)
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• We compared both materials on a
basis of producing 5 tons
• The primary contributor to emissions
was CO2; however, to directly compare
the two materials we used the global
warming potential (GWP) of each gas
emitted to calculate tons of CO2
equivalent. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
TDA's Composite Conventional PC/ABS
Tons
CO2
equivalent
emitted
to
produce
5
tons
– This is a common way to directly
compare the overall emissions
associated with a material or
process
• TDA’s nylon/microcellulose composite offers ~80% GHG emission reduction in
comparison to the state-of-the-art PC/ABS plastic

13. Life Carbon Cycle Analysis of
TDA’s Composite Materials (cont.)
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• The primary contributor
to GHG emissions from
TDA’s composite is the
polymer matrix (95%)
• Biobased nylon resin has a published carbon footprint of 1.9 kg CO2 eq. per
kg of material
• In addition to further reducing the contribution of TDA’s process to the overall
emissions, another area for further reduction in emissions is to transition to
fully biobased nylon

14. Summary
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• TDA developed a proprietary surface treatment formulation for the cellulose
materials to compatibilize them with nylon resins
• Biobased nylon/modified cellulose filler composites showed improvements in
mechanical and environmental performance compared to the unfilled biobased
nylon resin
• Biobased nylon /modified cellulose filler composites showed improvements in
mechanical performance and density reduction compared to the unfilled
PC/ABS resin currently used for the automotive bumper's fascia
• Biobased nylon /modified cellulose filler composites meet the automotive
requirement for the minimum impact energy absorption
• Biobased nylon /modified cellulose filler composite offers 80% GHG reduction
compared to the unfilled PC/ABS resin

15. Questions?
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