Periodic Reporting for period 2 - NeoCel (NeoCel – Novel processes for sustainable cellulose-based materials)
Berichtszeitraum: 2018-03-01 bis 2019-12-31
The major achievements and outcome of the project are:
• Several new pulp adaptation methods to improve the solubility of cellulose in cold alkali, i.e. enhancing the reactivity towards direct dissolution, both via mechano-enzymatic and cooking/bleaching methods. With the new methods, a wide variety of sequences are available that allow finetuning the desired properties for each specific case (either different pulps or dissolution conditions). The results will be useful for a broad range of stakeholders within the pulping and regenerated cellulose fibre industries. A selection of the results has been published in a peer reviewed paper.
• Two innovative methods for regeneration of process chemicals for each of the two spin bath concepts of the project has gained large interest not only for use in the NeoCel process, but also for existing viscose plants and within the pulping industry. The results were presented at the Avancell conference and will be published in a peer reviewed scientific paper.
• The establishment of continuous mode operation, both for the pulp adaptation process and of the dissolution step. The newly developed dissolution technology not only allows dissolution in continuous mode for large-scale production, but also enables dissolution at more moderate temperatures, which lowers the energy consumption of the production. The results will be published in a peer reviewed scientific paper.
• Development of a new toolbox for more holistic analyses of filaments/fibres. The toolbox gives a new opportunity for better understanding the correlations between the process parameters and the fibre properties on a molecular level.
• The whole value-chain from pulp to garment has been demonstrated and evaluated. By the development of large-scale continuous processes for the mechano-enzymatic pulp pre-treatment and cold alkali cellulose dissolution, kilogram scale production of staple fibres was enabled. The fibres were then utilized for yarn spinning, fabric manufacture, design and production of prototype garments. The importance of this achievement is not limited to enabling prototype production, but also generated valuable data for the process simulations and LCA.