The objective for the Exilva project is to commercialise the Exilva product, microfibrillated cellulose (MFC).
The work tasks include start-up of the world’s first industrial sized microfibrillar cellulose plant, development of the market, advanced product characterization of both MFC and its function in selected applications and finally life cycle analysis (LCA).
Borregaard, Chimar, KTH, Østfold and Ayming are the project partners (Unilever was terminated after M36/RP2).
The project had a very good start; the plant is operational, and the market development work attracts many new prospects within new fields. Technology transfer between the partners have been successfully conducted and the advanced characterization, application testing, and LCA have been conducted according to plan.
The project has received feedback from more than 1300 prospects. More than 50 new products containing Exilva have been developed within various application areas. The greatest challenge is not the conversion rate, but rather the conversion time, however we notice a positive development and increased sales. Prioritizing and resource management is now focused on prospects and projects where we see highest success rate in the market and shorter time to the commercial market.
Due to Covid-19, the final event had to be cancelled. A comprehensive planning effort has been conducted in this period. The agenda was set, and the speakers were prepared.
The overall objective for the project is to start up the first industrial microfibrillated plant and develop the market for this technology. The plant is in operation, and the market development is given very high attention. At the end of reporting period 3 (RP3) there are 15 employees involved in sales and marketing and almost everyone spending full-time on Exilva. This is 9 more than at the beginning of the project. Product characterization and LCA analysis have been conducted as scheduled. The project is currently working within several different application areas including adhesives, coatings, personal care, home care, agricultural chemicals, oilfield, construction, composites, automotive, and packaging. The functionalities from Exilva MFC in these application areas are often linked to the flow (rheology) of materials, stability, strength and barrier properties. Exilva shows very good efficiency and can both increase product performance as well as improve the products sustainability profiles. The objective for the flagship project is to successfully upscale from existing pilot plant to full-scale flagship plant and to demonstrate industrial symbiosis between the biomass/forest industry and the various customer’s applications that find the microfibrillated cellulose to add value to their product systems or production streams. The greatest challenge is not the conversion rate, but rather the conversion time, however we notice a positive development and increased sales.
