nanocellulose in plastic composites -...
TRANSCRIPT
Gurminder Minhas
February 12 2019
Nanocellulose in Plastic Composites
Company overview
What is Nanofibrillated cellulose
Case Study
– NFC plastic composites intended for
the automotive sector
Conclusions and Future work
Outline
company
overview
• customization and commercialization of NFC
• specialty high value-added applications
• presently Lab-to-Pilot scale quantities
• next year Commercial Plant completed
The Company
$3.5 Billion revenue
8,000 employees
$1.17 Billion revenue
1,840 employees
50/50 Joint Venture
Performance BioFilaments Inc.
nanofibrillated
cellulose
- NFC
NFC - Natural Source
• From forest sector feedstock to highly refined nanocellulose additive.
• Mechanical (non-chemical) refining process to produce nano fibrils.
Pre-fibrillation & Post-fibrillation
pre-fibrillation: Kraft fibers post-fibrillation: NFC fibrils
note - images are at 100 µm scale
• The input material, Kraft, is mechanically refined “top-down” into NFC.
• The fibrillated/refined material consists of nanocellulose fibrils.
Micro Fibrils and Nano Fibrils
note – left image is at 100 µm scale and right image is a 2 µm scale
Kraft “parent” fiber with NFC nano-fibrils NFC fibrils at nano-scale widths
• NFC nano-scale fibrils are 80-300 nm width X 100-500 µm length.
• Nano-scale fibrils have ultra-high aspect ratio of 800-1200 L/D.
fibril diameter 80-300 nm
fibril length 100-500 µm
aspect ratio 800-1200 L/D
surface area 80 m2/g
density 1.5 g/cm3
max. temp. ~220 °C
melting point not applicable
thermal conductivity Low
electrical conductivity Low
Characterization
Customization
chemical functionalization
micro / nano co-blends
enzyme modification
custom packaging
NFC enhanced
plastic
composites
Compounding Study
Evaluate cellulose fibers as reinforcements in thermoplastics.
• Project conducted with NRCC-Automotive & Surface Transportation Group.
• Industrial Biomaterials Group focused on lightweight & sustainable materials.
• Phase 1: Compounding and characterization of biocomposites made of polypropylene and polyamide with different mixtures of NBSK pulp and NFC.
• Compare properties with reference glass fiber and talc filler.
• Phase 2: Production of PP and PA based biocomposite pellets for industrial injection-molding trials.
Compounding Study
Extrusion Parameters
• Leistritz 34 mm co-rotating twin-screw extruder.
• 12 mixing zones, L/D ratio of 40, exit diameter of 2mm.
• Separate feed locations for polymer and fibers.
• Total flow rate of 5 kg/h at 100RPM.
NFC Feed for Compounding
20% NFC and 80% kraft pulp, at 95% solids
NFC Feed for Compounding
20% NFC and 80% kraft pulp, at 95% solids
Density of Composites
Density of cellulose at 1.5g/cm3 vs glass fiber at 2.5g/cm3 results in:
• 16.3% reduction for polypropylene (0.20 g/cm3)
• 15.6% reduction for polyamide (0.22 g/cm3 )
Polypropylene Tensile Strength
% Tensile Gain 34.7% 55.8% 10.7% 52.5%
Polyamide Tensile Strength
PA
% Tensile Gain 17.8% 28.5% 7.9% 49.1%
Heat Deflection Temperature
Results for polypropylene and polyamide approach the reference HDT values for 20% glass fiber.
NFC Functionalizion
Untreated NFC sheet: 40° Treated NFC sheet: 145°
Un
trea
ted
Trea
ted
WaterCyclo-
hexaneXylenes
PEG200
MineralOil
NFC Functionalizion
Conclusions & Next Steps
NFC has shown good potential to improve tensile strength of composites while reducing weight.
Next Steps:
• Scale up of optimized compounding formulation leading up to injection molding trials.
• Evaluate performance of “functionalized” NFC.
• Potential to improve bonding and eliminate coupling agents
• Evaluate composites containing NFC and other materials.
• Glass fiber, carbon fiber, talc, other natural fibers.
• Evaluate addition of impact modifiers on IZOD.
making great materials better
THANK YOU
Gurminder Minhas
Managing Director
www.performancebiofilaments.com