NATURAL FIBRES AND FILLERS | MATERIALS
Sustaining progress in natural fibres
Natural fibre reinforcements and fillers are proving effective options for reducing the environmental impact of plastic
products.Peter Mapleston looks at the latest developments
The availability and performance of fibres from all sorts of renewable resources continues to improve, helping compounders and processors that serve many markets to home in on targets for carbon footprint reduction, degradability, and overall sustainability. Much of this demand results from growing environmental concerns and increasingly restrictive regulatory requirements being imposed or threatened on the use of many plastics-based materials, particularly in the consumer goods sector. Looking just to Europe, almost 150,000 tonnes
of biocomposite granulates were produced across the continent last year, according to nova-Institute in Germany. It estimates that more than half of this volume contained cork, close to a third were wood-plastics composites, and near 10% used flax, hemp, or kenaf fibres. Some 4% of the compounds contained cellulose fibres (pulp or paper based) and the remainder were derived from a mix of sources comprising meadow grass, straw, nut shells, and other renewables. They are used for various reasons — not only for sustainability — with improved mechanical properties, aesthetics and weight reduction cited as prime goals. Building materials company Alloc and research
outfit RISE PFI, both based in Norway, earlier this year started a new project called “BioComp” with two industrial partners in the country. The project is
www.compoundingworld.com
centred on a new injection mouldable biocompos- ite system based on wood fibres (by-products of flooring production) and bioplastics, which are being implemented on a new compounding line that could eventually be used for commercial production. The BioComp initiative is a continua- tion of the FiberComp and ValBio3D projects previously discussed in Compounding World (see the May 2020 edition). Other partners in the BioComp project, which is partly funded by the Research Council of Norway, include Norske Skog Saugbrugs and Plasto. “The bio and circular economy focuses on biobased materials, reduction of material consump- tion, increment of the product-lifetime and recycling of industrial side-streams, thus closing the loop of material utilisation,” says Gary Chinga Carrasco, Lead Scientist in the Biocomposite area at RISE PFI. “This was one of the driving forces behind the project.” Chinga Carrasco says the project will develop new biocomposite products and covers the whole value chain from biocomposite production (the specialism of Norske Skog Saugbrugs), injection moulding (Plasto) and interior building materials (Alloc), all working in close collaboration with RISE PFI, which is responsible for biocomposite R&D. Dag Molteberg is Senior Development Manager at Norske Skog Saugbrugs. He says the company’s
Main image: A growing variety of natural fibres and fillers are being
developed for production of reduced carbon
footprint and lightweight polymer compounds
May 2021 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 33
IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK
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