MATERIALS | NATURAL FIBRES AND FILLERS
Right: Fence posts are made of natural fibre reinforced plastics in a project involving Neste, LyondellBasell, Biofibre and Naftex
licensing agreement with Green Carbon Solutions (GCS) for the production of its NeroPlast fillers and masterbatches. GCS is a Florida-based maker of high-purity biochar and is scaling up to supply various industries with its biocarbons. NPS will continue to focus on the marketing and develop- ment of its products. Bioregion Technology (BRT), located in Oregon in the US, has launched TruBlack, created from lignocellulosic biomass from agricultural waste. The company says that a novel carbonisation process is used to turn tightly controlled biomass input into a high-quality bio-derived carbon. BRT partnered with Nagase to sell and distribute the additive globally. The bio-based additive is available in a TruBlack TPA IR grade for use as a NIR-reflective black pigment and in a TruBlack TPA ESD grade for use in electrostatic dissipative applications.
PLA and lignin KraussMaffei Extrusion in Laatzen, Germany, recently partnered with Synergy Horizon Poland to adapt a compounding extruder to compound Synergy Horizon’s lignin powder into PLA to produce a fully bio-based reinforced thermoplastic. Synergy Horizon has developed a method to
make a free-flowing lignin powder from hydrolysis lignin, which is a waste byproduct from wood processing in the paper and bioethanol industries. that is typically incinerated. The company now uses its process to manufacture lignin powder commercially. To compound the lignin powder into PLA, Krauss
Maffei adapted its ZE Blue Power 28 laboratory extruder. “We have specially adapted the screw configuration to the lignin with heavy-sensitive mixing elements, operated at a low temperature of 160° C maximum, and use both a 6 D-long filling zone and side degassing,” says Lars Darnedde, Process Engineering Development and Project Manager at KraussMaffei Extrusion. The partners were able to incorporate up to 30% lignin into a PLA matrix in both the laboratory extruder and a small ZE Blue Power 42 production compounder. Darnedde says that the lignin acts as a reinforce- ment and increases flexural and tensile modulus by approximately 30% compared to uncompounded PLA. The lignin also exhibits natural antioxidant properties and has no odour. He adds that the lignin enhances biodegradability, and the com- pounds demonstrated a biodegradation rate of more than 90% in 99 days. Natural fibre plastic composites in construction
applications, particularly those made with bio-based or renewably-sourced polymers, are long-lifetime
22 COMPOUNDING WORLD | May 2024
applications that can provide carbon storage, says Neste, which produces feedstock from bio-based waste and residues for polymer production. For example, Neste’s feedstock is used by LyondellBasell to make CirculenRenew C14 PP with measurable bio-based content, and Germany’s Biofibre com- pounds this PP with natural fibres to make its new BioSustra compounds for extrusion into products, including fence posts manufactured by Naftex. “We have been using natural fibre residues from
organic farming for quite a long time. The fibres stem from sources in close proximity to our produc- tion site and do not compete with food or feed production,” says Jörg Dörrstein, Managing Director of Biofibre. The company reports that an LCA study created by GreenSurvey for Biofibre confirms that the amount of carbon removed from the atmosphere by the biomass exceeds supply chain emissions from logistics and manufacturing of the reinforced plastics granules.
CLICK ON THE LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION: �
www.ford.com �
www.heartland.io �
https://insightpolymers.com �
www.rise-pfi.no �
www.norskeskog.com �
www.upmbiochemicals.com/ �
www.damabioplastics.com/ �
www.newpolymersystems.com �
www.greencarbonsolutions.com �
www.bioregiontech.com �
www.nagaseamerica.com �
www.kraussmaffei.com �
www.synergyhorizon.com �
www.neste.com �
www.lyondellbasell.com �
www.biofibre.de �
www.naftex.de
www.compoundingworld.com
IMAGE: NAFTEX
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