Investigating rheological property of cellulose filament suspension for industrial fluid application and process improvement

纤维素是世界上最丰富的可再生生物聚合物， 基于纤维素的增值材料对加拿大生物基产品的增长具有重大意义。 纤维素长丝（CF）是一种具有恒定厚度和高长径比的新型纤维状材料， 通过纸浆纤维的机械精炼。这些纤维素长丝，由于它们的高机械强度， 可用作传统纸浆和纸张应用中的增强剂，以及新型应用中， 例如用于改善聚合物复合材料的机械性能。此外，CF可用作 食品、油漆、涂料和压裂液中应用的工业流体中的增稠剂/胶凝剂， 石油和天然气行业（Grüneberger等人，2014年）。CF基/增强产品的成功商业化 对于所有这些应用，只有通过理解和控制这种材料的流变性才能实现。 在这项工作中，CF悬浮液的基本流变学研究将进行。了不同 参数，例如长丝浓度、电解质添加、pH和温度对CF的流变性的影响，以及 将研究CF补充材料，以实现所需的流变性能， 特殊生物产品应用的可加工性。

Cellulose is the most abundant renewable biopolymer in the world and thus production of advanced value-added materials based on cellulose is of significant interest for growth of Canadian bio-based products. Cellulose filaments (CF) are a novel fibrillar material with a constant thickness and high aspect ratio, produced through mechanical refining of pulp fibers.. These cellulose filaments, due to their high mechanical strength, can be used as reinforcing agents in traditional pulp and paper applications, as well as in novel applications, such as for improving the mechanical properties of polymer composites. Additionally, CFs can be used as thickening/gelling agents in industrial fluids for applications in foods, paints, coatings and fracking fluids for oil and gas industry (Grüneberger et al. 2014). Successful commercialization of CF-based/reinforced products for all these applications can only be achieved by understanding and controlling the rheology of this material. In this work, a fundamental rheological study of CF suspensions will be conducted. Effects of different parameters, e.g. filament concentration, electrolyte addition, pH and temperature on the rheology of CFs and CF-supplemented materials will be investigated in order to achieve the desired rheological properties and processability for specific bio-products applications.