Page 45 - Research Report 2021 - Institut für Leichtbau und Kunststofftechnik

CeCo

Development of a manufacturing process for novel cellulose-based
composites in injection molding

In the project, a two-stage extrusion process for cellulose-based thermoplas- Period
tic composites is being developed together with the Papiertechnische Stiftung 01.08.2019 – 30.04.2022
PTS. For this purpose, bio-based polymers are used as matrix and regional
miscanthus grass as fiber reinforcement. In the first step, cellulose fibers from Project management
the miscanthus grass are fibrillated into micrometer scale and simultaneously Dr.-Ing. Robert Kupfer
chemically modified to improve fiber-matrix compatibility through reactive ex-
trusion. The resulting fiber morphology and degree of chemical modification Contact
are analysed and adjusted in the process. In the second extrusion step, the Dr.-Ing. Robert Kupfer
fibrillated cellulose fibers are further processed with cellulose-based matrices Yuanxi Liu
such as cellulose acetate (CA) and cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) to form
injection moldable cellulose-based compounds. Project partners
Institut für Zellstoff und Papier (IZP)
Compounds with drop-in biopolymers such as Bio-PP/Bio-PE are used for of the Papiertechnische Stiftung (PTS)
comparison. The manufactured materials are characterized regarding their
mechanical and physical as well as rheological properties. It could already Funding
been shown that the all-cellulose composites from biomass achieve compa-
rable mechanical properties to glass fiber-reinforced polypropylene (GF-PP)
with similar fiber contents (20-30 weight %).

Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs
and Climate Action (BMWK): Programme
“Industrial Collective Research” (IGF)
Funding code: 20338 BR/1
Managed by:

German Federation of Industrial Research
Associations “Otto von Guericke” e. V. (AiF)
Two-stage extrusion for the production of all-cellulose compounds.
Gesellschaft für Chemische Technik und
Biotechnologie e. V. (DECHEMA)

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Material transformation from raw material to composite.
*© Katrin Schneider, korina.info – CC-BY-SA-4.0 / Image detail

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