Lignin-Polyethylene Composite Materials: Production Process Optimization and Performance Evaluation

此Engage应用程序旨在与Domtar Inc.和康考迪亚大学的叶博士开发木质素-聚乙烯复合材料。木质素是仅次于纤维素的第二大生物聚合物。工业木质素是制浆米尔斯厂和生物精炼厂的副产品，大部分木质素作为低价值燃料在回收锅炉中燃烧。由于其天然丰富和低成本，木质素是从现有的纸浆和造纸厂及其基于森林的供应链开发新的增值生物基产品的关键平台材料。已经确定了这种材料的许多潜在增值应用和增值技术，但迄今为止几乎没有商业化。Domtar公司作为世界领先的硫酸盐木质素生产和销售的开发和商业化企业，在将粗木质素粉末通过挤压加工成干燥木质素颗粒并将其用于木质素-热塑性复合材料方面取得了良好的进展，但仍存在一些挑战需要解决，包括现有木质素挤压工艺的优化，复合材料的除臭，以及木质素基复合球团的性能特点，以便大规模工业化生产。这个Engage项目旨在通过我们的合作研究努力来解决Domtar的具体挑战。这项研究的成功有望扩大木质素的利用，从而产生具有商业开发潜力的高价值产品。

This Engage application aims at establishing a research partnership between Domtar Inc. and Dr. Ye atConcordia University to develop lignin-polyethylene composite materials. Lignin is the second most abundantbiopolymer after cellulose. Industrial lignin is produced as a by-product of pulping mills and bio-refineries andthe majority of lignin is burned as a low value fuel in the recovery boilers. Given its natural abundance and lowcost, lignin is a key platform material for the development of new value-added, bio-based products fromexisting pulp and paper manufacturing sites and their forest based supply chains. Numerous potentialvalue-added applications and valorization technologies for this material have been identified but few if anyhave been commercialized to date. Domtar, as a world leader in the development and commercialization ofisolated kraft lignin manufacture and marketing, has made good progress on converting crude lignin powderinto dried lignin pellets by extrusion and has used them to make lignin-thermoplastic compound materials.However there are still several challenges that need to be addressed, including optimization of the existinglignin extrusion process, de-odoring of the composites, and the performance properties of the lignin-basedcomposite pellets, in order for the large-scale commercial production. This Engage project is aimed ataddressing Domtar's specific challenges through our collaborative research efforts. The success of this researchis expected to expand the utilization of lignin, leading to high-value products having the potential forcommercial exploitation.