FIBIC Seminar 20.11.2013

1. New Cellulose Products and
Process Technologies
FIBIC annual seminar 20.11.2013
Anna Suurnäkki, VTT, FuBio Cellulose program manager
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Kristiina Poppius-Levlin, VTT
Marja Rissanen, TUT
Jaakko Hiltunen, VTT
Jonni Ahlgren, Kemira
Katja Salmenkivi, Pöyry
FuBio Cellulose
Anna Suurnäkki

2. Forest industry searches for new products
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FuBio Cellulose
Anna Suurnäkki

3. FuBio Products from Dissolving Cellulose
Main objective
To develop novel, sustainable, and feasible
processes for production of
 regenerated cellulose staple fibres
 novel functional materials based on
cellulose beads, nonwovens or
thermoformable structures
 water soluble cellulose chemicals
FuBio Cellulose
Anna Suurnäkki

4. FuBio Products from Dissolved Cellulose
Target: value chains novel to forest industry
Technical
textiles
Garments
www.suominen.fi
Water management
chemicals
Hygienic products
Plastic like packaging
FuBio Cellulose
Anna Suurnäkki

5. FuBio Products from Dissolving Cellulose
Approach
drying
collecting
washing
Fibre spinning
Cellulose
absorbents for
hygiene products
Water soluble
cellulose
chemicals
Chemical
synthesis
Regenerated cellulose fibres for
textiles and nonwovens
Beads manufacturing
FuBio Cellulose
Anna Suurnäkki
Cellulose
beads to
e.g.medical
tableting
Thermoplastic
cellulose to
fibres
5

6. FuBio Products from Dissolving Cellulose
Foreseen impacts
 Finnish knowledge platform fortified with world class research
and inventions in focus areas
 Business and economy
 Existing value chains equipped with breakthrough technical
tools
 Potential new value chains based on wood cellulose
introduced
 Novel business opportunities for value chain players:
pulp and paper companies, chemical suppliers, engineering
and machinery suppliers, and material converting companies
 Environment, sustainability and safety
 From oil based polymers and unsustainable cellulose sources
to wood cellulose in focus areas
 Future process sustainability and workers safety by replacing
harmful process chemicals (e.g. in staple fibre production)
o
FuBio Cellulose
Anna Suurnäkki

7. FuBio Cellulose – Result examples
FuBio Cellulose
Anna Suurnäkki

8. Result example
Synthesis routes for cationic cellulose chemicals
Motivation: Cationic water soluble polymers is a growing market with key application
areas in water treatment, pulp & paper, oil, mining, cosmetics and textile industries
Target: A feasible synthesis route for cationic, water-soluble, cellulose-based flocculant
for paper and water treatment applications
Effect of charge on polymer solubility
Results:
Extensive cationization chemistry mapping carried out
Techno-economic modelling of process concept carried out
Process concept
Qualitative and quantitative
opportunities evaluated
Cellulose
Effect of polymer charge on performance
Activation
Cationization
Neutralization
Separation &
Purification
Drying
Cationic cellulose
FuBio Cellulose
Anna Suurnäkki

9. Result example
Cellulose beads for medical applications
Results
 New method for producing
cellulose beads developed to kg
scale
 Beads can enable precise,
accurate and individualized dosing
of pharmaceuticals
Drugs were immersed in wet beads and dried
FuBio Cellulose
Anna Suurnäkki

10. Result example
Water based regenerated fibre production process
Finnish invention Biocelsol process as a basis
Dissolving grade pulp
MERCERISATION, 18wt% naoh
Combined mechanical and enzymatic
treatment
Sulphurisation
 Process more lean and less polluting than viscose
 Machinery the same as in viscose process - enhance
industrial take up of the technology
 Process challenge: Pretreatment time and up-scaling
Aging
Before
project
Results
Dissolving, NaOH
Alkaline slurry is frozen
and thawed
Ripeni
ng
 Feasible, up-scalable
pretreatment process
Mechanical shredding
Pulp consistency
Batch size
Filtration, degas
 Fibres with excellent
water absorption
No emissions
Pulp consistency
Batch size
Regeneration
FuBio Cellulose
Enzymatic treatment
Enzyme dosage, relative
Anna Suurnäkki
After project
5h
20%
0.5 kg
3h
combined
treatment
for 45min
at 30%
consistency,
up-scalable
5%
0.5-5kg
1
0.25

11. Result example
Novel solvent based regenerated fibre production process
 Novel fibre spinning process based on ionic liquid dissolution of
wood cellulose
 Example of the material demonstration
FuBio Cellulose
Anna Suurnäkki