Cellulose nanocrystal reinforced polymer composites

CelluForce是纤维素纳米晶体（CNC）商业化生产的全球领导者，CNC是一种源自纤维素的先进材料，具有独特的特性，可再生，可生物降解和无毒。在过去的十年中，全球范围内迅速扩大了CNC在各种应用中的商业化，包括塑料和复合材料，油漆和涂料，个人护理产品，医疗保健，包装和电子产品，代表了航空航天，汽车和石油天然气等不同行业。CelluForce拥有世界上最大的商用CNC工厂，年产量可达300吨。CelluForce看到了一个重要的市场机会，即制造基于结构类似于PET（聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯）的聚合物的CNC增强塑料，PET广泛用于饮料和食品容器、工程树脂和服装纤维。然而，他们面临着一个关键问题;目前不可能通过任何已知的工艺或方法使CNC均匀分散到聚合物中。如果CNC不均匀分散，则无法实现产品性能的预期改善。为此，CelluForce将与皇后大学的坎宁安博士合作，开发一种新的工艺来制造基于CNC的复合塑料。此外，他们将使用可再生聚合物，因此最终的CNC增强产品是100%可再生资源。CelluForce正在为该项目提供专有技术，此外还在人员时间，材料和设施使用方面做出了重大承诺。加拿大林业占国内生产总值（GDP）的2~3%。然而，传统纤维素产品的利润率很小，而且还在下降。引入CNC等高附加值产品并将其应用于大型盈利市场将需要开发新技术，例如我们将在本提案中开发的工艺。该项目可以为CNC创造新的市场，潜在的巨大和高利润，并将加强CelluForce在市场上的竞争优势。

CelluForce is the global leader in the commercial production of cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), an advanced material derived from cellulose with unique properties that is also renewable, biodegradable and nontoxic. The past decade has seen a rapid expansion worldwide in efforts to commercialize CNC across a variety of applications including plastics and composites, paints and coatings, personal care products, health care, packaging, and electronics, representing diverse industries such as aerospace, automotive and oil and gas. CelluForce operates the world's largest commercial CNC plant, capable of producing 300 tonnes per year. CelluForce sees a significant market opportunity to make CNC-reinforced plastics based on polymers similar in structure to PET (polyethylene terephthalate), which is widely used in beverage and food containers, engineering resins, and clothing fibers. However they are facing a critical problem; it is currently not possible to get the CNC to uniformly disperse into the polymer by any known process or methodology. Without uniform dispersion of the CNC, the expected improvement in product properties cannot be achieved. For this purpose, CelluForce will collaborate with Dr. Cunningham at Queen's University for the development of a new process to make CNC-based composite plastics. Furthermore, they will use a renewable polymer, so the final CNC-reinforced product is 100% renewably sourced. CelluForce is contributing proprietary technology to the project, in addition to a significant commitment in personnel time, materials and facilities use. The Canadian forest industry accounts for 2~3% of gross domestic product (GDP). However profit margins for traditional cellulosic products are small and declining. The introduction of higher value-added products such as CNC and their adoption into large profitable markets will require development of new technologies such as the process we will develop in this proposal. This project could create new markets for CNC, potentially quite large and highly profitable, and would strengthen CelluForce's competitive advantage in the marketplace.