Canadian renewable nanomaterial joint venture gets a name
Canadian Plastics
Research & Development Sustainability Green Development Plastics: Technology AdvancesA joint venture between Domtar and FPInnovations to manufacture a strengthening agent extracted from trees now has a name: CelluForce.
A joint venture between Domtar and FPInnovations to manufacture a strengthening agent extracted from trees now has a name: CelluForce.
Launched in July 2010, the partnership will manufacture a recyclable and renewable nanomaterial extracted from tree cellulose. Nanocrystalline cellulose is made of cellulose fibres from the wood pulp manufacturing process – the powder is extracted from dry pulp using a proprietary process that causes a chemical reaction and is then filtered. According to CelluForce, small quantities of the material can then be added to plastics, wood, paint, textiles and other products to make them stronger, scratch resistant and protective of ultraviolet light. Possible applications for the product are in the aerospace, automotive and food industries.
The nanocrystalline cellulose will be produced in a large-scale commercial demonstration plant currently under construction on the site of Domtar’s pulp and paper mill in Windsor, Que. The construction of the demonstration plant is progressing quickly, and it should be operational in the first quarter of 2012, CelluForce said in a news release.