COMPOSITES F
ounded in 2017, BioPowder is a producer and supplier of high-grade fruit stone powders and bio-based
abrasives derived from fruit processing streams. The company pitches itself as a key part in a sustainable supply chain that converts excess organic material from the fruit industry into fully biodegradable ingredients for reuse in other sectors. Not all plant-based ingredients
are automatically sustainable, with renewables often coming from sources that involve industrial farming, and the use of agrochemicals and monocultures. While certain staple food crops such as corn and have been used as raw materials for non-food biomass products in the past, in the context of a growing world population and misallocation of food there needs to be a better solution, says BioPowder co-founder Kathrin Schilling. “The ultimate goal is to
produce end-products that allow manufacturers to generate the minimum environmental impact and maximum added-value in terms of technical properties and sustainable material design,” she says. “Within a bio-based composite, all of its constituents – the resin, fi llers and reinforcing particles – can be bio- based. Composites with a higher bio- based content generally have a lower carbon footprint, specifi cally as less emissions are generated throughout the entire product lifecycle.”
PERFORMANCE PARTICLES Backed by decades of experience in the biomass processing industry, BioPowder’s small team takes excess fruit waste and converts it into fully biodegradable ingredients that can be used to form novel biocomposite materials with a wide range of industrial applications. “We produce sustainable
fi llers, reinforcing powders and functional additives that composite manufacturers can use in their compounding processes to produce biocomposite materials,” Schilling explains. “To do this, we make so- called ‘performance particles’ from recycled olive stones.”
The olive stone granules can be coloured according to application requirements
Olive stones can add strength, stability and lightweight properties to biocomposites For centuries, olives have been
an essential staple food in the Mediterranean region. Today, olive stones have become a sought-after fi ller material with added value for ceramics, coatings, composites, polymers, asphalt and bitumen. Besides adding a signifi cant bio-based percentage to existing materials, they have strong binding and texturising capabilities, and have been proven to boost material resistance, tensile strength and lifespan. “Olive stones are very hard and
have very low density – only around a third of the density of conventional fi llers,” Schilling says. “When they are incorporated into a bio-based composite, they can add signifi cant strength and stability, while also off ering lightweighting benefi ts
which are fundamentally important for parts and components within the automotive, aerospace or shipbuilding industries, where every gram of weight counts.” Olive stones can also provide other
functional and aesthetic benefi ts, too. “We can create very unique textures and surface eff ects such as anti-slip properties,” Schilling continues. “Not only is the resulting material fully degradable, but it is fully compostable in diff erent environments and doesn’t require industrial recycling processes. Also, we shouldn’t forget that olive stones contain certain bioactive compounds that can deliver antioxidant and even antimicrobial properties to materials.” Schilling explains the processes involved in converting olive stones
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