WSU professor leading plant-based oil research

A Washington State University researcher is leading an effort to create polyurethane from plant-based oils.

Polyurethane is used in everything from foam insulation panels to tires, hoses and sealants. Researchers are looking for a fossil-fuel free alternative to the petroleum-based product.

A research team headed by Michael Kessler, a professor at WSU’s School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, developed a new method that uses vegetable oils to create polyurethane with a wide variety of flexibility, stiffness and shapes. The team’s work was published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

WSU researchers worked with colleagues from Iowa State and Cairo universities, using olive, canola, grape seeds, linseed and castor oils for the polyurethane. Other efforts to create the plastic from plant-based products have required solvents or a catalyst, which this research team didn’t use, according to WSU.

“The novelty of this particular work is that these polyurethanes are using a new chemistry made by a combination of castor oil fatty acid and modified vegetable oils,” said Kessler, who is director of the Center for Bioplastics and Biocomposites, a collaboration between WSU and Iowa State University.

The center was created earlier this year with help from a National Science Foundation grant.