FLYING MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY SKIES WITH RENEWABLE RESINS

In 2017, Alicia Piscitelli ’18 MSSE managed a material availability project for Boeing through the RISE (Resilient Innovation through Sustainable Engineering) Forum, which partners industry experts with students in Villanova’s Sustainable Engineering graduate program. With two completed Boeing internships to inform the project, Alicia’s RISE project led to a third internship with the aerospace leader, as well as funding for her PhD research. Today, Piscitelli is finishing her doctorate with a dissertation titled “Decarbonization and Sustainability Assessment of Phenol Resins in the Aerospace Supply Chain,” where she’s looking at applications for these novel aerospace composites. Her advisors are Villanova’s Dr. Noelle Comolli, associate professor and chair of Chemical and Biological Engineering; Dr. Ross Lee, a professor of practice in the Sustainable Engineering program; Dr. Deanna Zubris, associate professor of Chemistry; and Dr. Gwen Gross, a polymer expert at Boeing.

Piscitelli explains that the resins typically found in the interior of airplanes—seats, stow bins and sidewalls, for example—are produced using fossil fuels. In her research, she is investigating alternative sources that are both renewable and regenerative. Determining whether these options are truly more sustainable than the fossilized sources is also a priority, requiring consideration of the supply risk and restrictions, and the material’s impact on human health and ecosystems.

To this point, Piscitelli has synthesized the traditional polymers used in the aerospace supply chain and a partially renewable polymer using a biosourced phenol. Given their identical molecular structures she is cautiously optimistic in saying, “It looks like the resin made with a sustainable phenol is going to work!” The only difference, she notes, is the source of the material—in this case, renewable feedstock. The next step in her research involves a renewable source for formaldehyde, which she’s synthesizing from biomethanol using microwave pyrolysis. “And then,” she says, “We will have a fully renewable resin.”

When asked about the financial implications of her alternative materials, Piscitelli acknowledges that there is currently an economic barrier to its widespread use. Renewable phenol is not as readily available as fossilized phenol. “But,” she adds, “as interest grows and pressure mounts on suppliers from companies like Boeing, there will be money in making a sustainable alternative.”

After graduation, Piscitelli looks forward to continuing her career in the aerospace industry, where her research has the potential to make a significant impact. She hopes to work in either a sustainability role or in wing composite technology, a group with which she most recently interned. She notes, “You don’t have to have sustainability in your job title to be working on sustainability projects. Everyone can make a contribution.”