natural fibres and fillers | Innovation
during the manufacture of paper and cardboard with a considerable amount ending up in landfill or incinera- tion plants. As part of the Reffibre project, Plastec Finland and Wiitta produced floor tiles and storage containers containing 30% by weight of these side stream products. The research team predict future applications could include pallets and crates.
Above: Several parts of this clarinet are produced in Aqvacomp cellulose fibre reinforced composite
offering the added bonus of lower density. “The wet Aqvacomp process can control the size and shape of the reinforcing cellulose fibres very precisely,” he says. “The accuracy and repeatability of the process also offers the possibility to reliably simulate injection moulding with Aqvacomp composites using commercial simulation software – an aspect not usually associated with natural fibre composites.” Nikkilä adds that, from a technical perspective, the
single most important feature of the material is its 3D reinforcing capability. He says that while glass fibre reinforcement is generally strongly oriented in the flow direction, Aqvacomp offers uniform reinforcement along all three axes. A new plant is scheduled to start up at the Metsä
Fibre pulp mill in Rauma in the final quarter of this year. “The ability to use never-dried cellulose directly from the pulp mill, together with its excess of green electric- ity (not to mention savings from local supply logistics) also provides for a unique ecological aspect,” claims Nikkilä. He points to an assessment by the German Nova Institut of the process, which concluded that Aqvacomp material reduces the carbon footprint by between 20 and 40% compared to PP-GF 30%. The Nova Institut carries out a wide range of
Right: Plastic
storage boxes and floor tiles have been
produced with 30wt% paper
industry waste within the EU
Reffibre project
research and consultancy work focused on the bio- economy. Managing Director Michael Carus says: “Biocomposites are able to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions by 50% and more. With accounting for the carbon storage in the biocomposites, the reduction can even be 80%. These are very good results compared to other alternative materials.” Researchers at Finland’s VTT Technical Research
Centre, who have been working as part of the EU Reffibre project, say that lab tests suggest that sludge and fly ash generated from the paper and board making industry could replace up to 50% of the polymer content in polypropylene compounds for injection moulding and extrusion. Large quantities of these side streams are created
28 COMPOUNDING WORLD | March 2017
www.compoundingworld.com
Cellulose filaments Across the Atlantic, Canada’s Performance BioFila- ments is a biomaterials joint venture company focused on commercial deployment of cellulose filament technology based on intellectual property owned by FPInnovations. It is currently supplying kilogram-scale quantities of modified cellulose filament but Managing Director Gurminder Minhas says the company has approval to build a commercial plant in Quebec that he hopes will go into commercial production in 2018 with a capacity of 20 tonnes/day (although not all of this is intended for plastic compounds). Performance BioFilaments is co-owned by Mercer
International Group, a major producer of wood pulp, and Resolute Forest Products, which produces pulp and paper. It collaborates on research with various other organisations, including the University of British Colombia and Fraunhofer UMSICHT Institute for Environmental, Safety, and Energy Technology. Minhas says its cellulose filaments are produced
from Northern Bleached Softwood Kraft (NBSK) pulp fibres using a newly-developed mechanical process. NBSK fibres are 2-3mm long and 30-50 microns in diameter, giving them an aspect ratio of between 50 and 100 and a surface area of around 3 m2
/g. The filaments
are typically 100-500 microns long and between 80 and 300nm in diameter, giving them an aspect ratio of anywhere from 800 to 1200. Each gram of filaments yields a surface area of some 80m2
. The high aspect ratio of the cellulose filaments
makes them very good candidates as reinforcements in blends with NBSK fibres, Minhas says. In a presentation at the Compounding World Forum in Philadelphia last
PHOTO: VTT
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