Wood Fibre Reinforced Composites: a Commercial Overview and Scions Woodforce

Wood Fibre Reinforced Composites: A commercial overview and Scions Woodforce

Jeremy Warnes 2019

1 Extruded profiles are not the focus

Predominantly based on wood flour

Trex decking (US)

2 Natural fibre reinforced plastics

• Injection moulding • PP most common polymer • Growth driven by automotive sector • Competing with glass reinforced or mineral filled polymers

5 star chair base Alfa Romeo Dashboard – PP/Woodforce

Ford battery holder – PP/Weyerhauser cellulose

3 Advantages of Natural Fibres

• Glass fibres or mineral fillers used to make plastic stronger and stiffer • Natural fibres can be used – Lighter – Improved Environmental profile – End of life/recycling benefits – Potential cost savings – Reduced tooling abrasion TMP fibre - Woodforce – Improved processing cycle times – Good dimensional stability Mercedes C class

4 Biocomposites in the Automotive Industry

Company Fibres Applications Ford Flax, kenaf, coir Interior, door panel, load floor Mercedes Benz Flax, hemp, coir, sisal Interior panels, spare wheel well, seats Toyota Bamboo, kenaf Interior panels, speakers, spare wheel cover BMW Flax, sisal Interior panels Fiat Wood, coir Interior panels and trim GM Wood, kenaf, flax Trim, rear shelf, seat backs Chrysler Wood Interior panels and trim

Many of these use compression moulded sheets made from fibre mats.

Review of the Applications of Biocomposites in the Automotive Industry, Akampumuza et al, POLYMER COMPOSITES, 2016

5 Natural Fibres for Injection Moulding An area of growth and development.

Fibre type Description Example Disadvantages when compared with the producers advantages Scion fiber Hemp Industry in EU, supported Faurecia Odor, quality, consistency, long retting with subsidies, complex process, global availability, scalability, regulations logistics, seasonal Flax, sisal, jute, Other dedicated plant Primarily research Odor, quality consistency, global ramie.. other fibres availability, scalability, logistics, seasonal Straw, bagasse.. Agricultural residue A. Shulman, Odor, quality consistency, global other Rhetech – availability, scalability, logistics, seasonal supporting Ford Kraft pulp Chemical wood pulp, Thrive, Expensive, difficult to process, sold as a cellulose rich fibre Formi, Fribomer compound/masterbatch, negates Symbio, Greencore advantages of supply chain Micro cellulose Further refined and Primarily research Very expensive and very difficult to process purified cellulose Nano cellulose Highly refined and Primarily research Extremely expensive and extremely difficult purified cellulose to process Wood Fibre Scion Wood Fibre Dice Scion licences and Readily available all year long and world their customers wide, low odor, consistent, easy to process, compound, and scale, etc.

6 Woodforce Manufacture

“A patented method for manufacturing wood fibre rich pellets, that can be fed into plastics processing equipment to reinforce thermoplastic.”

• A drop-in technology

7 Technical Benefits

• Lowest cost way of reducing chip to fibres • Consistent, reliable supply from MDF mill • Easy to handle • Free flowing • Low odour • Minimised dust and explosion risk 2.5 kg (cf wood flour or loose fibre) 2.5 kg

8 Automotive • Approved as a material in Eu. • Prime benefits: • Weight reduction • Dimension stability • Environmental • Scratch resistance • Most industrially compatible natural fibre

9 Wide range of other applications

Eurostar Antenna box

10 Elix ABS Natural Fibre

Conclusion ELIX Polymers, with its keen focus on sustainable innovation and continuous attempts to enhance customer value, has introduced the best-in-class ELIX ECO ABS-NF product. This product has delivered a high aesthetical value to the final ABS-NF molded parts, compared to PP-based natural fibre composites. The product’s mechanical properties have proven comparable to, or superior, in certain instances, to glass fibre composites. The product’s ease of process ability and reduced number of process steps have proven its success in the industry. With its strong overall performance, ELIX Polymers has earned the 2016 Frost & Sullivan New Product Innovation Award. https://www.elix-polymers.com/uploads/fd870e3489f19c3974fd92473f0fd8924ebf2dc8.pdf

Compounding World (March 2017) describes Elix ABS using Woodforce.

11 PolyOne

12 Cellulose Nano Fibre (CNF)

Diagram from Nippon Paper

• Area of much R&D • Japanese Government pushing strongly

13 CNF Application in plastics Natural ‘carbon fibre equivalent’ in the future • High tensile strength (500MPa – similar to aluminium) • Target US10/kg (Ref Thermoplastics M. Biron 2018) High viscosity, low solids • Generally supplied as 3%w/w solution – handling and cost issues. 3kg fibres need to remove 97kg water during processing • Technically and price wise compared with carbon fibre (Nikkei Asian Review 2017) – CNF 5,000 yen to 10,000 yen cf 3,000 yen for carbon fibre • Commercially supply and processing challenges

Automotive Dashboard Estimated Costs - Natural Fiber/PP composites = $30 Mainly test samples made - CNF = $1000

14 www.scionresearch.com