additives feature | Natural fibres
brings the compounding facility to the source of biomass, and the process can use a combination of biomass, including switchgrass, soya hulls, and oat hulls as well as miscanthus. One of the challenges for agricultural fibres is
obtaining a consistent supply that is available when needed at the right cost. For example, A. Schulman is using wheat straw fibre in its AgriPlas compounds: “The issue becomes forecasting quantity needed well ahead of the time of the harvest to reduce the overall cost of the wheat straw fibre,” notes Paul Hardy, product manager for engineered plastics at the company. Wheat straw has several advantages over other
Close to the source: CG Tech produces natural fibre compounds on a farm in Ontario, Canada
Sonae’s
Woodforce engineered wood-fibre
diced pellets simplify
handling and help retain fibre length
Flax is stronger than other natural fibres and is
considered a technical fibre, with a tensile modulus of approximately 57 GPa that is close to glass fibre, notes Henau. Because fibres tend to clump and can be difficult to feed into an extruder, Procotex has developed two compacted-flax pellets with a natural binder that are easier to feed. The company is currently doing small- scale tests on the prototype products with compounders. Competitive Green Technologies (CG Tech) has a
facility dedicated to bio-based polymer compounding located on a farm in Ontario, Canada. The company harvests miscanthus (a perennial grass), processes it into a fibre, and compounds it with mixed-stream recyclate. Compounds contain between 25 and 40% by weight fibres and can also be coloured. A CG Tech compound is used commercially in an
automotive air-duct control part. The compounds were developed at the University of Guelph and scaled up to commercial production at CG Tech with help from extruder maker Steer. The CG Tech business model
Maritim Hotel, Cologne 21-23 April 2015 presented@Velox Table No 5
When perfomance counts:
Montan Waxes Lubricants for various plastics – made in Germany
PVC PC
PA PBT SMA TPU POM PU
Phenolic resins
More info at
voelpker.com
natural fibres. “In our analysis of the many fibres we have looked at (e.g., soy, oat hulls, rice hulls, kenaf, hemp, sisal and tomato), wheat straw fibre continues to provide the best balance of properties. Because the majority of the wheat is returned to the field after harvesting, collecting that waste was relatively easily compared to some of the other natural fibres. In addition, the wheat straw fibre is grown globally, unlike
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