Micro-fibrillated cellulose development and application

加拿大林业的纸浆和造纸部门是生产可持续和可再生生物材料的最前沿。除了各种纸产品，包括印刷和书写纸，卫生产品和包装产品，该部门正在领导新型纤维和聚合物产品的开发。这些产品包括CellulForce的Cellulose Nanocrystals、FiloCell的Cellulose microfibrils和LampleForce的Kraft木质素。纤维素微/纳米原纤维是指具有至少一个纳米/微米尺度的维度的纤维素材料。这种原纤材料在广泛的新材料中得到应用，所述新材料在混合复合材料、膜、分散体、泡沫、粘合剂等中提供高强度、低密度和其它增强的性质。纤维素微/纳米原纤目前使用机械工艺由常规牛皮纸和化学热机械纸浆（CTMP）纸浆纤维制造。这些方法包括高压均质化;微流化、研磨;破碎和高强度超声处理;以及在纸浆纤维上施加物理力以将细胞壁分解成其主要组分的其他手段。所有这些过程都需要大量的能量。为了减少能量消耗，纤维通常用碱-酸、酶或离子液体进行化学预处理。这些方法目前的局限性在于，它们要么在资本成本、预处理化学和能量成本方面太昂贵，要么太难以规模化到工业应用。这些纤维素原纤的第一个应用将是先进的纤维素纤维材料，如先进的包装，绝缘和吸收产品。例如，纤维素原纤维提供了产生具有优异的绝缘性能的高强度和低密度包装材料的能力。这种新型的可再生绝缘材料可能是使电子杂货彻底改变食品行业的关键技术。长期目标是开发将低价值的生物质转化为高价值的MFC，以整合到广泛的新型材料中，包括高性能纸，超低密度泡沫成型材料和产品，并最终成为高强度，多标量混合复合材料，有可能彻底改变从运输到民用基础设施的一切（Khan和Kim，2011年）。为了实现这一目标，我们将需要对MFC/纤维悬浮物理应用于制造，加工和产品开发阶段的基本理解。

The Pulp and Paper sector of the Canadian forest industry is at the forefront of the production of sustainable and renewable biomaterials. In addition to all of the various paper products that include printing and writing papers, hygiene products and packaging products, the sector is leading the development of novel fibre and polymer products. These products include Cellulose Nanocrystals by CellulForce, Cellulose microfibrils by FiloCell and kraft lignins by LignoForce. Cellulose micro/nano fibrils refer to cellulosic materials that have at least one dimension on the nano / micron scale. Such fibrillar materials are finding applications in a broad range of new materials that offer high strength, low density and other enhanced properties in hybrid composites, films, dispersions, foams, adhesives, etc. Cellulose micro/nano fibrils are currently manufactured from conventional kraft and chemithermomechanical pulp (CTMP) pulp fibres using mechanical processes. These processes include high pressure homogenization; microfluidization, grinding; crushing and high intensity ultrasonication; and other means to impart physical forces on the pulp fibres to break down the cell wall into its fibrillary components. All of these processes take tremendous amounts of energy. To reduce the energy consumption the fibres are typically chemically pre-treated with either alkaline-acid, enzymes or ionic liquids. The current limitations with these processes is that they are either too expensive in terms of capital costs, pre-treatment chemistry and energy costs or are too difficult to scale to industrial applications. One of the first applications of these cellulose fibrils will be in advanced cellulose fibre materials, such as advanced packaging, insulation and absorbency products. For example, cellulose fibrils provide the ability to create high strength and low density packaging materials that have exceptional insulation properties. This novel and renewable insulation material may be the key technology that enables e-groceries to revolutionize the food sector. The long-term objectives are to develop convert low value biomass into high value MFC for integration into a wide range of novel materials including high performance paper, ultra low-density foam formed materials and products and eventually into high strength, multi-scalar hybrid composites that have the potential to revolutionize everything from transportation to civil infrastructure (Khan and Kim, 2011). To accomplish this we will need a fundamental understanding of MFC/fibre suspension physics applied to the manufacturing, processing and product development phases.