MATERIALS | NATURAL FIBRES AND FILLERS
materials, Alloc has an environmental obligation to the market,” says Leif Kåre Hindersland, Alloc’s R&D Manager. “We need to make every effort to find better, lower-energy ways to produce, using sustainable and environmentally sound raw materials. We look at this project as a door-opener to a changing market with more and more de- manding end users regarding the circular econo- my. There will also be an increased demand from governments around the globe that force every producer to go in the right direction.” RISE PFI has many years of experience in
Above: Norske Skog Saug- brugs is
building a new plant for production of its Cebico wood fibre-based biocomposite pellets at its Halden site in Norway
main business is in the production of printing paper, but it also develops new green products based on its fibre resources and knowledge. “Saugbrugs has run several R&D activities related to biocomposites over the last ten years, but we are now taking this to an industrial and commercial level with the building of a new plant for produc- tion of biocomposite pellets.” The brand name chosen for the pellets is
Cebico. They will be produced on the demonstra- tion plant at the Norske Skog Saugbrugs plant at Halden in Norway, which will consist of a line for preparation of wood fibres, together with the compounding and pelletising line. Start-up capacity will be around 300 tonnes/yr. “The fibre source will be TMP (thermo mechanical pulp) spruce fibres, which we produce. Thermoplastics will be PE and PP, virgin and recycled. We will also investigate bio-based materials,” Molteberg says. Molteberg says the company sees large market
opportunities within construction materials, consumer goods and packaging, among others. “We seek customers using conversion techniques like injection moulding, extrusion, hot pressing and 3-D printing.”
Right: Aimplas is exploring the use of fillers derived from olive stones in the Oliplast project
Moulding expertise Plasto Project Manager Runar Stenerud says its role in the project is to provide injection moulding expertise. The company operates highly automated injection moulding facilities that run 24/7 with unmanned production over night and during week- ends. “Participation in BioComp project is impor- tant for us to further strengthen our value proposi- tion,” he says. “Solving complex problems in the most cost-effective and sustainable manner possible.” Alloc’s goal is to ensure its interior building
products meet the environmental expectations of its customers. “As a producer of interior building
34 COMPOUNDING WORLD | May 2021
www.compoundingworld.com
research and production of sustainable biocom- posite materials based on several different poly- mers and tailor-made fibres and nanofibres, according to Chinga Carrasco. “We are pleased to be contributing to the industrial realisation of biocomposite products in Norway, with our extensive know-how and state-of-the-art equip- ment within the wood fibre processing, biocom- posites and 3D printing areas.” Moving to southern Europe, Spanish research
organisation Aimplas is looking at the use of the residues from olive cultivation in plastics. It is starting out from the premise that the main crops in the Mediterranean basin that generate lignocellu- losic residues — potential raw material for compos- ites and particleboards — can be woody crops such as olives, almonds, citrus fruits, and vines and cereals such as rice. Global olive oil production has tripled over the past 60 years. For the 2019/20 growing season, global production amounted to 3.14m tonnes — close to 40% of it in Spain — according to data from the International Olive Council. It is an industry that creates considerable volumes of waste material — pruning of olive trees generates a large amount of biomass, which is made up of leaves (25% in dry weight) and branches. The olives themselves
IMAGE: NORSKE SKOG SAUGBRUGS
IMAGE: AIMPLAS
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