tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42888714074198769802024-02-21T14:02:43.923+00:00Nonwoven.co.uk20 years of service to the International Nonwoven and Fibre Industries.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger421125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-90802989779068025642017-02-10T09:44:00.002+00:002017-02-10T10:04:01.081+00:00Start-up of new production facility for Bemliese™ spun-laid rayon<div class="mainBody" style="background: rgb(247, 249, 250); border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 85.1406px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent;">Asahi Kasei’s Fibers & Textiles SBU completed the addition of new production facility for Bemliese™ cupro continuous-filament nonwoven fabric in Nobeoka, Miyazaki, Japan. Commercial operation of the new facility began on February 1, 2017.</span></div>
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Bemliese™ is the world’s only cupro continuous-filament nonwoven fabric. It is composed of regenerated cellulose fiber made from cotton linter, the fibers around cotton seeds. These natural origins make Bemliese™ the ideal material for a wide range of applications—in the skincare and medical fields, as wipers for industrial and commercial use.</div>
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Sold in markets around the world, Bemliese™ is enjoying particularly strong demand growth in skincare applications. As such demand growth is forecasted to continue, the decision was made to construct a new production facility. With the completion of the new facility, production capacity for Bemliese™ increased by approximately 1,500 tons/year.</div>
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Moving forward, the Fibers & Textiles SBU will continue to expand production capacity and enhance the production infrastructure in order to strengthen the Bemliese™ supply configuration in line with additional growth in the global market.</div>
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<dt class="overviewWord" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; float: left; margin: 0px 2px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 9em;">Location</dt>
<dd class="overviewDetail" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0.5em; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">Nobeoka, Miyazaki, Japan (at the site of the former polyester plant)</dd></dl>
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<dt class="overviewWord" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; float: left; margin: 0px 2px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 9em;">Product</dt>
<dd class="overviewDetail" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0.5em; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">Bemliese™ cellulose nonwoven fabric</dd></dl>
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<dt class="overviewWord" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; float: left; margin: 0px 2px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 9em;">Capacity</dt>
<dd class="overviewDetail" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0.5em; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">Approximately 1,500 tons/year</dd></dl>
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<dt class="overviewWord" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; float: left; margin: 0px 2px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 9em;">Groundbreaking</dt>
<dd class="overviewDetail" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0.5em; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">December 2015</dd></dl>
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<dt class="overviewWord" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; float: left; margin: 0px 2px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 9em;">Start-up</dt>
<dd class="overviewDetail" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0.5em; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">February 2017</dd></dl>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 14px; text-align: right;">Raw Material</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.asahi-kasei.co.jp/bemliese/en/what-bemliese/images/what-bemliese/what-bemliese_img02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Photo:Cotton linter" border="0" src="http://www.asahi-kasei.co.jp/bemliese/en/what-bemliese/images/what-bemliese/what-bemliese_img02.jpg" height="138" style="border: 0px none; font-size: 13px; margin-top: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="326" /></a></div>
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Fabrics</div>
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<img alt="Photo:Fabric patterns" src="http://www.asahi-kasei.co.jp/bemliese/en/what-bemliese/images/what-bemliese/what-bemliese_img06.jpg" height="223" style="border: 0px none; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="285" /></div>
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Fibres</div>
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<img alt="Photo:Filament diameter" src="http://www.asahi-kasei.co.jp/bemliese/en/what-bemliese/images/what-bemliese/what-bemliese_img07.jpg" height="219" style="border: 0px none; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="350" /></div>
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Bemliese only uses the short fibers (unused) around the seeds that were not previously used. The process was developed in the 1960's and first commercialised in 1973 and marketed as a cotton nonwoven.<br />
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<img alt="Photo:Filament spinning to roll winding" height="147" src="http://www.asahi-kasei.co.jp/bemliese/en/what-bemliese/images/what-bemliese/what-bemliese_img05.jpg" width="400" /></div>
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The original production process enables these fibers to be turned into material with higher functionality than regular cotton.</div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica neue regular";"><span style="font-size: 12.96px; letter-spacing: 0.1296px;">http://www.asahi-kasei.co.jp/bemliese/en/what-bemliese/index.html</span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-33434000729748865002017-02-07T15:08:00.000+00:002017-02-07T15:10:05.159+00:00Kelheim Fibres has new and well-established products at Index17 Viscose speciality fibre manufacturer Kelheim Fibres presents a mixture of new and well-established –
and further enhanced – products at index17 in Geneva.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Flushability</i></b> remains one of the most important topics. With their flat short cut fibre, Viloft®, Kelheim
Fibres offers the first viscose fibre for rapidly disintegrating wet wipes. Nevertheless, the Bavarians do
not rely on the performance of the fibre and their experience of more than 10 years in this area alone -
quite the opposite in fact: together with the local wastewater authorities and renowned pump
manufacturer WILO, comprehensive tests on products containing Viloft® were conducted in 2016.
“We wanted to go one step beyond the requirements of the flushabilty guidelines and we see what
actually happens in practice - that is to say down in the sewage system. In contrast to traditional
(spunlace) wipes, which led to clogging and blocked pumps, wipes made of Viloft® have passed the
test with flying colours. Furthermore, our close cooperation with the wastewater authorities has made
clear to us how much damage to the sewage systems is really caused by incorrectly disposed wet
wipes. The increased maintenance costs amount to almost 200 Mio € per year in Germany alone –
and, at the end of the day, these costs are paid by the consumer”, says Matthew North, Commercial
Director at Kelheim Fibres.<br />
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In addition to their rapid disintegration, which eases the load on the pumps, wet wipes made of Viloft®
and wood pulp are compostable: they consist of 100% cellulose and are fully biodegradable.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Hygienic fibres</i></b> remain another important topic for the world-leading manufacturer of viscose fibres for
the tampon industry. Their patented, extra absorbent speciality fibre Galaxy®, highest hygiene
standards as well as a deep understanding for their customers’ needs enable long-lasting peer-to-peer
partnerships. The ”External Business Partner Excellence Award 2016“,recently received from P&G, is
proof of this.
Nevertheless, the innovative fibre experts step up to new challenges, too.<br />
<br />
Kelheim Fibres’ in-house
R&D has developed a new fibre named <b><i>Electra,</i></b> which can be used in a wide range of applications for
the dissipation of static charges. Currently, Kelheim is testing the possible use of this fibre in
connection with sensitive electronic components.
Kelheim Fibres displays these products and more functionalised speciality fibres at booth no. 2415 at
index17 in Geneva.
media information,<br />
<br />
Press Release - 2017-02-06Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-25284036623107612002016-08-11T21:42:00.000+01:002016-08-11T21:42:48.193+01:00Sateri to expand Viscose staple capacity by 1 million tons<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sateri has confirmed orders for machineries to expand its Viscose Staple Fiber (VSF)
production capacity by 1 million tons. This will position Sateri as the largest VSF producer in the world
by 2020. The total investment in the expansion is expected to exceed RMB10 billion (USD1.5 bn). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sateri is already the largest VSF producer in China with annual capacity in excess of 550,000 tons
from its 3 mills in Fujian and Jiangxi provinces. The company supplies premium quality VSF to textile
yarn spinners and spunlace nonwovens producers worldwide.
“We believe in the future of VSF as a superior fiber for both textiles and nonwoven fabric. In the past
one year, we have been making preparations for expansion and today’s confirmation of key machinery
orders brings us closer to realising our plan,” said Mr Tey Wei Lin, CEO of Sateri.
“The additional 1 million ton capacity will be achieved through brownfield projects at our current
operating locations. The new capacity will come on stream in phases from 2018 to 2020, subject to
market conditions. By 2020, we expect to have over 1.6 million tons capacity, making us the largest
producer of sustainably sourced and manufactured VSF in the world,” added Mr Tey. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Sateri is one of the largest viscose staple fiber producers in the world. Sateri’s viscose staple fiber is a natural
raw-material and key ingredient to everyday items like textiles, and non-woven products such as baby wipes, and
personal hygiene products. Sateri's annual production capacity exceeds 500,000 metric tons of viscose staple
fiber. Sateri is committed to sustainable development and launched its Sustainable Pulp Sourcing Policy in 2015
and Sustainability Policy in 2016. All of its 3 mills including Sateri (Fujian) Fibre, Sateri (Jiangxi) Chemical Fibre
and Sateri (Jiujiang) Fibre obtained PEFC CoC certification, Oeko-Tex Standard 100, ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.
With our corporate office in Shanghai, we operate a sales, marketing and customer service network covering Asia,
Europe and the Americas. In particular, our well established presence in Shanghai allows us to be strategically
positioned to service the China market, which is the world's largest and fastest growing market for viscose staple
fiber.</i></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-50226656119511025652016-02-15T10:31:00.000+00:002016-02-15T10:31:35.402+00:00French decree supports biobased and home-compostable bags<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Berlin, 11 February 2016. European Bioplastics (EUBP), the association representing the bioplastics industry in Europe, welcomes the approval of the French implementation decree on single-use plastic bags, which was published by the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy last week on 1 February 2016. “The decree sets out clear requirements for the reduction of single-use plastic bags in favour of biobased, biodegradable and home-compostable bags. This is an important measure and supports the efforts of EUBP to emphasise the essential role of bioplastics for the circular economy in Europe,” says Hasso von Pogrell, Managing Director of EUBP. <br /><br />In August last year, France introduced a ban on single-use plastic bags as part of the new law on Energy Transition and Green Growth. An implementation decree setting out the requirements and conditions in greater detail has now been approved and will come into effect on 1 July 2016. The decree applies to single-use carrier bags below a thickness of 50 microns, which will have to meet the requirements of the French standard for home composting and feature a biobased content of at least 30 percent. The minimum biobased content will increase progressively to 40 percent in 2018, 50 percent in 2020, and 60 percent in 2025. Appropriate bioplastics materials have been readily available on the market for quite some time, and manufacturers are eagerly waiting in the wings. Christophe Doukhi-de Boissoudy, president of French association Club Bio-plastiques comments: “We welcome the mobilisation of public authorities in order to finally achieve such a measure. It will allow biobased and biodegradable plastics stakeholders to harness the benefits of their research efforts to develop new biodegradable and compostable plastics that reduce our dependency on oil. The decree will help to reduce the plastic bags pollution as well as to revive economic activity for French plastics converters, as 90 percent of fruit and vegetable bags are currently being imported.” <br /><br />The law makes France one of the first European countries taking concrete measures on plastic bags in favour of biobased and compostable bags in an effort to comply with the European Directive to reduce the consumption of lightweight plastic bags. It also underpins the benefits of separate collection of organic waste with biodegradable and compostable bags. The draft decree was amended to take the notions of the European Commission and the French State <br />Council into account. “We expect the French decree to serve as an example for European legislation and to contribute to the increased demand of sustainable bioplastic solutions,”<br />More information on the French law on plastic bags: http://en.european-bioplastics.org/</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-82071237990660756422015-10-21T17:44:00.000+01:002015-10-21T17:44:30.912+01:00PCI Sustainability: The Big Picture<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jonathan Cullen of Cambridge University</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">said the world is not about to run out of energy or materials but something must nevertheless be done to stop and even reverse the rise in anthropogenic carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Since 1870, human activity has added 1500 gigatonnes of CO</span><sub style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2</sub><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">to the atmosphere and this has raised global temperatures by about 1</span><sup style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">o</sup><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">C.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These carbon emissions have arisen in the course of improving the thermal comfort, sustenance, illumination and hygiene for the growing population; to move them and their goods around, and to make buildings, infrastructure vehicles and “things”.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With current emissions running at 28 Gt CO</span><sub style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2</sub><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">/year, 35% is arising from industry, 27% from transport and 31% from buildings.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Using Sankey diagrams to map energy flows and CO<sub>2</sub> emissions from source to final product or service Dr Cullen showed that compared with buildings and transport, industry uses energy more efficiently. Within industrial products, steelmaking emitted most CO<sub>2</sub> (25%) with cement (19%), paper (4%), plastics (4%) and aluminium (3%) being the other big consumers. However 45% of total industrial emissions were in the Others category. Global demand for these materials will double by 2050 and the scope for reducing their process emissions is limited by the fact that most producers are now approaching the “best practice” limits. To reach the desirable halving of absolute CO<sub>2 </sub>emissions by 2050, a cut of at least 75% per tonne of product is needed and this appears impractical on current technologies.</span><br>
</div><a href="http://www.nonwoven.co.uk/2015/10/pci-sustainability-big-picture.html#more">Click Here for the rest of the article.......</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-15959709041440780012015-10-13T16:27:00.000+01:002015-10-13T16:31:31.511+01:00The PCI Polyester Sustainability Conference - London - September 2015<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj13Jttfz1aw8afIpby08h6uUQ56Sy62ibIdpJ_Hqc-TBPOiZ9veJ2ki_eSfkrzC-L91S6a7LLVojUgIC5axVo6tjdFbR1LLlraAmLGaUB4m4y4U7yFs2j8Rq4rgS3xg2T_aap-rHugokBx/s1600/DSCN1001+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj13Jttfz1aw8afIpby08h6uUQ56Sy62ibIdpJ_Hqc-TBPOiZ9veJ2ki_eSfkrzC-L91S6a7LLVojUgIC5axVo6tjdFbR1LLlraAmLGaUB4m4y4U7yFs2j8Rq4rgS3xg2T_aap-rHugokBx/s640/DSCN1001+%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(R to L) Philip Gibbs (PCI) opens the Conference with Jonathan Cullen (Cambridge University) and Paul Clarke (PCI) </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Over the last 4 years the PCI Consulting Group has studied the sustainability aspects of the polyester industry and this was their first conference to share the findings. The study originated when PCI decided to sponsor a PhD student at Cambridge University to obtain independent quantitative numbers on sustainability for the polyester production chain in particular. That student became a full-time consultant with PCI, but the work continues at Cambridge and was reviewed in the opening presentation.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But for this opening paper, all the presentations were from PCI work by PCI consultants and the conference was therefore unique - in my experience at least - because there were no “commercials” and every paper provided concentrated factual information. Every one of the papers presented in this single day would have been a highlight of the average 3-day technical textiles or nonwoven conference!<br /> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The conference also covered:</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the prospects for bio-versions of PET’s monomers, ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid,</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the issues involved in scaling up bio-versions,</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the PET recycling industry – “the real key to sustainability”,</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the latest on the sustainability of that key component of many polyester-blend textiles i.e. cotton,</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the drivers for sustainability in the apparel chain.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Summaries of these will be posted soon.</span><br />
<h2>
</h2>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-38743032476616385022015-04-16T12:17:00.001+01:002015-04-16T12:18:28.049+01:00Lenzing sells the Kelheim acrylic tow and carbon fibre businesses<div class="news-single-subheader">
<div style="line-height: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Lenzing Group announces the sale of its fully owned German subsidiary Dolan GmbH, Kelheim and its 91.1% stake in European Carbon Fiber GmbH, Kelheim to WHEB Partners’ Growth Fund 2 of England and Jan Verdenhalven. The corresponding agreement was concluded on April 15, 2015. Both sides agreed to keep the purchase price confidential.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“The sale comprises part of Lenzing’s strategy to focus on its core business of man-made cellulose fibers. With WHEB and Jan Verdenhalven, Lenzing succeeded in finding financially strong, industry-oriented new owners in which both companies will be able to develop more effectively in the future than up until now”, comments Lenzing’s Chief Financial Officer Thomas Riegler. “Moreover, it is important for European Carbon Fiber that WHEB and Jan Verdenhalven already have longstanding industrial experience in the carbon fiber business. The company now has interesting growth perspectives once again through a potential cooperation with other companies in the strategic investment portfolio of WHEB.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dolan manufactures high quality specialty fibers on an acrylic basis which are used for textiles, convertible car tops, as sunshades, for garden furniture and protective clothing. Dolan is one of the major suppliers of convertible car tops in Europe. The company employs a workforce of about 100 employees, generating revenue of EUR 57.5 mn in 2014. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">European Carbon Fiber GmbH is a joint venture with Kelheim Fibres GmbH which manufactures precursors for the carbon fiber industry. The company achieved annual revenue of EUR 10.4 mn in 2014.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18px; padding: 0px 0px 20px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Source - Lenzing - April 15th 2015</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-55008124237577154562015-03-19T16:20:00.002+00:002015-03-19T16:27:19.122+00:00Wet-Wipes in UK Beach LitterThe Marine Conservation Society's annual survey of beach litter for 2014 shows a 50% increase in the number of wet-wipes compared with 2013. It is now possible to find 35 wet wipes on every kilometer of beach around the UK and these are now a bigger problem than other sanitary disposables. Of the 101 categories of beach litter, wet wipes showed the second highest growth over the last decade. Plastic pieces were the worst offender, but the MCS noted that wet-wipes contained plastic - polyester - and therefore last a very long time in the sea.<br />
<br />
Cotton buds, as evidenced by their plastic sticks, had declined over the decade but showed an unexpected increase over the last year. These are still more numerous than wet-wipes (per km of beach) but have significantly less visual impact. The numbers of wet-wipes found is now comparable to the numbers of plastic bags on beaches.<br />
<br />
It will be interesting to see if the increased use of flushables reverses this trend.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.mcsuk.org/downloads/pollution/beachwatch/latest2015/MCS_GBBC_2014_Report.pdf">The report can be downloaded here.</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-23721275965015655132015-01-17T17:26:00.001+00:002015-01-20T15:50:46.341+00:00Recycling used Hygienic Disposables<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Marcello Somma, Sustainability Innovation Manager of Fater SpA (Italy)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> described the technical progress made on their 500kg/batch pilot plant developed to recycle diapers and other absorbent hygenic products (AHPs) . He claimed it was achieving separation efficiencies of >95% without degrading the reclaimed materials which were produced sterile and at moisture contents below 20%. Fater is a JV between Procter and Gamble and Angelini.</span><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In Italy alone, 900,000 tonnes per year of used AHPs are landfilled or incinerated every year, and a system of segregation and collection of such waste already serves 7 million people.</span><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The pilot plant looked like a very large drum washer/dryer which could discharge clean dry waste into a shredder/separator. 1 tonne of used diapers fed to the pilot plant contained about 50% body fluids and yielded 350kg of sterilised absorbent comprising fluff pulp and superabsorbent. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> This </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">recycled cellulose stream</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is being evaluated in pet-care absorbents, spill control products, compost, gas generation via digesters, paper mills, and even viscose production. It also yields a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">recycled plastic stream</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> comprising 150 kgs of white mixed PP/PE polymer chips which Fater claim can be fed to a wider range of processes than standard recycled plastic.</span><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The process, when scaled up, will be good for citizens who will get a dedicated AHP collection service and cash savings (if the proposed pay-as-you-throw taxes are introduced). Local councils will save money on landfill and increase their contribution to EU recycling and biodegradable waste targets. Waste disposal companies will develop new business if they instal the Fater system and of course the environment will benefit from the negative C-footprint (-17kgs CO2/tonne) if Italy as a whole adopts the process.</span><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The next step is to instal a larger continuous pilot plant with a capacity of 8000 tonnes/year in Veneto by the beginning of 2015.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-29706632709823015352015-01-06T11:41:00.002+00:002015-01-06T11:41:45.616+00:00Sustainable Development<div style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 10pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Uwe Bergmann, Director of Sustainability Management at Henkel (Germany)</b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b> </b>summarised the challenge of sustainable development as reducing our environmental footprint while improving the quality of life to allow 9 billion people to live well and within the limits of the planet by 2050. Four major trends have to develop to make this possible:</span></div>
<ol style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Growth must be decoupled from resource consumption. For instance China hopes to reduce carbon emissions by 40% per RMB by 2020.</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Consumers must increasingly use social media to make their concerns known. (1.13 million now follow Greenpeace on Twitter.)</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Regulations and de-facto standards must be tightened. Walmart’s Sustainability Consortium has engaged 5000 suppliers has tackled 300 product categories to reduce their impacts.</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">>50% of consumers are aware of the challenge but currently unwilling to change habits.</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In 2013, the United Nations surveyed a 1000 CEO’s around the world and found that 32% believed the economy was on track to meet the demands of population growth. 33% felt that business as a whole was doing enough to address the challenge, but 83% feel that further progress will only come from more regulations. They felt there would be a plateau beyond which a radical change in market structure driven by a common understanding of global priorities will be needed. Innovation of new technologies, collaboration between industries and close cooperation with stakeholders will be needed to move above the plateau. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In short, we have to achieve more with less. By 2030 we need to triple the value we create from the current footprint of our operations, products and services. This could be achieved by combining long- and short-term targets where annual improvements of 5-6% would add up to achieving the long-term goals.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Henkel were targeting, over the next 5 years:</span></div>
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">More value for customers: 10% more sales are needed from each production unit.</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Safer workplaces: 20% reduction in accidents per million hours worked.</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reducing water usage by 15%.</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reducing waste by 15%.</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Reducing energy consumption by 15%.</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Examples of Henkel innovation included the development of low-temperature hot-melt adhesive based on 50% renewable materials to reduce the energy required in diaper production.</span><br />
<div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-37614453020506203712015-01-02T16:57:00.003+00:002015-01-02T16:58:26.501+00:00Spunmelt Nonwovens Life Cycle Analysis<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thomas Broch, Senior Scientist at Fibertex Personal Care (Denmark) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">described the use of cradle-gate Life Cycle Analysis to determine the impact of white spunmelt nonwovens production on global warming, non-renewable energy use, and multiple impacts such as human and environmental toxicity.</span><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The starting assumptions with regard to the boundaries chosen, transport options, and the raw material data provided by different suppliers are key and can alter the results dramatically. Improving the waste management in the production plant also had a profound effect, reducing the Fibertex emissions from 3348 to 2907 kg CO</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: sub; white-space: pre-wrap;">2</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> equivalent between 2000 and 2011, while reducing virgin PP resin use by almost 100,000 tonnes. Using natural gas burners for heat generation further reduced C-footprint by more than halving the kg CO</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: sub; white-space: pre-wrap;">2 </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">equivalent compared with electrical heating.</span><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Converters varied in their demands for Environmental Product Declarations, but requests for raw data for calculations further down the supply chain were becoming less common and the focus on CO</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: sub; white-space: pre-wrap;">2</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> emissions as a key figure is increasing.</span><br />
<h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 10pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS'; font-size: 17px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></h2>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-70124970028277855742014-12-28T17:21:00.004+00:002014-12-28T17:23:22.654+00:00Lidl: Will consumers pay for environmental benefits?<div style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 10pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Jan Bock, Senior Management, Purchasing International of Lidl Stiftung and Co. KG (Germany)</b> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">reviewed customer surveys from around the world and noted the following interesting, but sometimes conflicting conclusions regarding consumers willingness to pay more for environmental benefits:</span></div>
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">81% of Chinese will pay more for energy-saving products. (Greendex 2010)</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">60% of consumers will pay a premium - on average 18% - for goods with a social or environmental benefit. (Prof. Winer, 2013)</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">50% of global consumers will pay more to companies with programs that benefit their society. (Only 36% of consumers in the EU but 75% of those in India - Neilsen, 2013)</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On the other hand…</span></div>
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While 83% of global customers feel its important to improve the environment, only 22% would pay more for eco-friendly products. (Neilsen, 2011)</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Consumers have no interest in reducing climate change by paying more for low-impact products (Canada, 2004)</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">73% of consumers don’t buy products with environmental benefits (IGD, 2008)</span></div>
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</ul>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mr Bock thought consumer surveys will generally overestimate the willingness to pay for sustainability. Premiums are more likely for products with tangible benefits which directly affect the purchaser, and so marketing should be specific rather than general: global warming benefits and C-footprint are hard to sell. They’re also more likely to pay extra for non-durable, frequently purchased items than durables, and for “egotistical” rather than “altruistic” products. </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nevertheless, developing sustainable products does make sense because they are good for the environment and do build goodwill for your company and brands.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-9493547841600188102014-12-27T10:59:00.001+00:002014-12-28T17:19:55.768+00:00Viscose for Flushable Nonwovens<div style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Sebastian Basel, the Speciality Papers Business Manager of Kelheim Fibres GmbH (Germany)</b></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b> </b>provided an update on their continuing developments with short-cut viscose fibres for wet-laid nonwovens. He noted the need for more convenience and felt this could be provided by having a single wet-wipe substrate which could be used for baby, toddler, cleaning and moisturising wipes, all of which could be disposed of into the sewerage system.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unfortunately the flushing of non-flushable wipes has caused problems in sewage systems around the world and the requirements of these waste systems has to be respected by adherence to the lastest, 3rd edition of the INDA/EDANA Flushability Guidlines. Products which fail any one of the sequence of 7 tests for flushability and biodegradability must now be labelled as Non-Flushable. </span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wet-wipes have to do the seemingly impossible, i.e. be strong in use and weak in the toilets and sewers while maintaining attractive softness, purity, absorbency and bulk. The key to success is maintaining adequate strength in the controlled wetness of the wipe pack while achieving rapid dispersion in an excess of turbulent water in the toilet. Mr Basel argued that wipes made from short fibres dispersed in water had a better chance of meeting these requirements than wipes made of longer fibres using carding. Hydroentanglement bonding of these wet-laid short fibres enabled production of strong products with just the right amount of “hydro-disentanglement” potential required in flushing. Furthermore certain cross-sectional shapes achievable with the viscose process improve strength in use while simultaneously improving the dispersibility in the sewage system. Finally, only substrates with a majority of biodegradable fibres such as viscose would meet the guidelines.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In summary, hydroentangled wet-laid nonwovens made with Kelheim’s flat-section Viloft viscose fibre provided the best bet for meeting the current flushability requirements.</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-47896242397662299332014-12-23T14:06:00.003+00:002014-12-23T14:37:37.612+00:00Breakthrough Innovation<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Dr Bryan Haynes, Director of Global Enterprise Research and Engineering, Global Nonwovens, Kimberly-Clark (USA) </b>made the case for increasing the rate of innovation in general and in nonwovens in particular. Times were a changing, and it was not, to paraphrase Charles Darwin, the strongest that survive, it was those most responsive to change: </span><br />
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<li>By 2022 China will be spending more on R&D than the USA. </li>
<li>R&D has to become more efficient: more profitable innovations without budget increases. </li>
<li>Breakthrough innovation is the key, and Open Innovation is the way forward. </li>
<li>Academia can contribute more and is searching for future R&D role. </li>
<li>Nonwovens technical institutes can bridge the gap between academic and industrial research. </li>
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K-C have led product differentiation with unique features such as loop fasteners, stretch ears and breathable backsheets for diapers while reducing costs by pioneering the use of new materials such as spunbond and SMS nonwovens. New fabrics will require new raw materials, new processes and new after-treatments, but the returns make such investments worthwhile. Considering Reicofil with 300 beam installations for diapers in the last 10 years there is clearly a case for more investment in process technology.<br /><br />All companies will benefit from global population growth and the ageing of the population, but to be really successful you have to expand into new “adjacent” territories and remain open to “transformational” innovation - inventing for markets that don’t yet exist. For K-C their development of spunbond housewrap was a good example of moving into adjacent territory.<br /><br />What would be transformational in the nonwoven industry? With raw materials being the major source of costs and benefits, Dr Haynes thought improving the sustainability (reduce, reuse, recycle) of those materials would be the key. Basis weights of nonwovens and diaper weights could be further reduced by moving from melt-blowns to nanofibre nonwovens, and ultra-absorbents for example. However the problem of diaper waste, with 1.4 billion diapers a day being used globally, was not going to go away and the recycling of disposables or the use of biodegradable materials would be needed. Once again there appeared to be a need for “new to the world” process development and rapid progress from prototypes to commercial reality. With only 10% of R&D projects going commercial there was a need for many new programs and as a consequence many more failures. Failing faster, more cheaply and more often was the key!<br /><br />Our industry must now think big, focus on open innovation and transformational technology, and minimise the costs of development by partnerships, including those with global academia and technical institutes. Large markets for nonwovens could emerge from the demand for cleaner water, air and energy.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-12908356525665220232014-11-05T09:44:00.003+00:002014-11-05T09:45:30.701+00:00Infra-Red Reflective Viscose<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kelheim Fibres, the world’s leading manufacturer of viscose speciality fibres, is extending its range of </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">speciality products by a newly developed viscose fibre that reflects infrared (IR) radiation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The human body - like any other matter with comparable temperature - releases a large part of its </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">energy via thermal radiation. This radiation is mainly composed of infrared light. It leads to a loss of </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">energy and therefore to a cooling of the human body. The newly developed viscose fibre with </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">incorporated IR-reflecting particles can significantly reduce this process: Thermal radiation emanating </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">from a body is reflected by the particles incorporated in the viscose fibre and sent back to the body, so </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">reducing the cooling of the person.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In addition to this thermal retention function, the wearer of such a textile also benefits from the typical </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">properties of a viscose fibre such as wearer comfort, softness and skin friendliness. This is achieved </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">by the intrinsic quality of the treatment: in contrast to a subsequent finish with additives based on </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">titanium oxide, the mineral IR-reflecting particles are incorporated into the fibre’s core, preserving the </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">typical fibre properties. The effect is permanent as the additive cannot be washed out. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First test results of the new fibres that have already been successfully manufactured on a pilot scale, </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">show significant temperature effects in comparison to a standard viscose fibre. This opens up a </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">multitude of possible fields of applications: Used in functional underwear, the thermal effect can </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">increase the well-being of the wearer even at low temperatures. In functional sportswear, the new fibre </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">can lead to improved performance and a faster regeneration of the athlete, thanks to improved blood </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">circulation. Along with textiles, different nonwoven applications could benefit from the IR-reflecting </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">fibre, as for example warming shoe inserts.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Comfortable feel-good clothes and functional special clothing are just two obvious applications for our </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">new IR fibre”, so Dr. Nina Köhne from Kelheim Fibres’ R&D team. And her colleague, Dr. Daniela </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Bauer, adds: “We would be happy to adapt the fibre exactly to the demands of other applications </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">depending on our customer’s specific needs. In the past, individual development partnerships often </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">have proven very fruitful and we are glad when our customers reach out to us with their new ideas.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For the next step, the Bavarian fibre specialists are planning physical and physiological textile tests.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-15664786297695344752014-10-29T20:31:00.005+00:002014-10-29T20:33:18.176+00:00Automotive Biopolymers<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">José Rodilla, Senior Product Development Engineer with Faurecia</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- the world’s 6</span><sup style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">largest supplier to the auto industry with a turnover of €16 billion - described their development of “NAFI Lean”, a composite of 80%PP and 20% hemp intended to replace their P/E copolymer in cockpits, door panels, instrument panels etc. It’s lower density and reduced thickness compared with P/E copolymer or GRP are the key benefits with reduced fuel consumption being the USP for the auto industry.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Short-cut hemp is compounded with PP to make chips for injection mouldings. Their use provides:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> ·<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span>25% weight savings.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> ·<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span>20% LCA Savings (CO<sub>2</sub>).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> ·<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span>Processability on existing machinery with a 6% reduction in cycle time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> ·<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span>A step on the road to 100% bio-composites.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is more expensive than P/E copolymer but currently perceived as the best compromise between quality and weight. It is now used in the Peugeot 308. 3000 tonnes are produced in the EU and a further 10000 tpa planned for Asia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Faurecia is also developing its own 100% bio-based polymer “Biomat”, for non-visible auto parts. Biomat is 100% poly-butylsuccinate made from tapioca starch using monomer technology from BioAmber and polycondensation technology from Mitsubishi Chemicals.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-49071026882735934652014-10-24T16:08:00.000+01:002014-10-24T16:08:38.377+01:00Biodegradable Gas Barrier Films<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Domenico de Angelis of Nippon Gohsei (Japan)</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">believes their Nichigo G-Polymer™ (PVOH) makes a better gas barrier film than EVOH and in dry atmospheres it can be 50x better. So for dry foods in controlled storage at humidities below 60% RH PVOH will outperform EVOH to an extent that downgaging and cost saving is possible. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">PVOH gives films with glass-like transparency which biodegrade like cellulose and are therefore fully compostable. The packaging film used PVOH as the middle layer of a sandwich with PLA as the outer layers. There were problems with adhesion and these had been solved using a special tie resin. The 3-layer film could also be ground and recycled as PLA; the PVOH being water soluble could be washed away. A typical construction would be 20 microns of G-Polymer inside 30micron layers of PLA each bonded to the G-Polymer with 10microns of adhesive to give an oxygen transmission rate of 0.02 ccs/square metre/day at 23C and 50%RH.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Nippon Gohsei make 70,000 tonnes/year of PVOH in Japan. Nichigo G-Polymer™ is the world’s first amorphous PVOH and combines the strengths of regular PVOH and EVOH.</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-35983917386148115412014-09-26T20:57:00.003+01:002014-09-26T21:03:00.780+01:00Certification of Biopolymers<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>More from AIMPLAS Valencia...</i></span><br />
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Miriam Lübbecke of DIN Certco (Germany) </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">specialises in biopolymer certification using a scheme which is totally transparent with all details publically available on their website. When a manufacturer applies for a certificate, DIN Certco assesses the relevant literature and decides how to test the product. It uses appropriate independent test laboratories chosen from its list of 130 accredited and contracted testing partners, issues a report on the results, and if appropriate, the certificate of conformance and permission to use the logo. “Biobased” certificates cover three levels, 20-50%, 50-85% and >85% biobased according to ASTM D 6866 methods which requires a total organic carbon of >50% and a C14 content above 20%. Testing is required every second year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Compostable” certificates can include 4 logos, “the seedling” for industrial compostability, and 3 “DIN-Gepruft” logos covering industrial, home composting and additive content. ASTM D6400 is among the approved tests, but only the Australian standard AS 5810 is used for home composting certification. The tests include ultimate biodegradability, disintegration, plant toxicity, EN 13432 chemical analysis and, for home composting the ASTM E 1676 earthworm toxicity test.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Recycled Content” is determined by DIN EN ISO 14021 and audits of the manufacturing site to determine traceability under DIN EN 15343. A new “All-in-one” DIN Certco logo covering all 4 properties is now available.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-23839932978930330012014-09-21T15:35:00.002+01:002014-09-26T20:59:03.983+01:00Biocomposites from Starch, Natural Fibres and Polymers<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>More from AIMPLAS, Valencia...</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Leon Mentik of Roquette (France)</b> explained how they bought maize, potatoes, wheat, tapioca and peas for processing and used the extracted starches to make bioplastics. After cellulose, starch was the second most abundant polymer on the planet with 1.3 billion tonnes being produced annually in plants. 6% of this (80 million tonnes/year) is extracted very easily, the by-products being proteins and fibre for use as food. Starch is highly reactive and easily grafted or alloyed with other materials to add desirable functionalities. It can be used directly to make starch-based plastics, either as blends with other polymers or in the form of durable thermoplastic starch. It can also be easily hydrolysed to glucose to provide the starting point for the whole range of bio-based or bacterially produced polymers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Gaialene® is Roquette’s durable, i.e non-compostable, starch-based plastic which has been certified against ISO 14040/44 by Price Waterhouse Coopers with a carbon footprint of 0.74 kg CO<sub>2</sub> eq./kg resin or ~1/3<sup>rd</sup> that of PP. It has applications in replacing polyolefins in films, injection moulding and foams, to produce shopping bags (for recycling or incineration), multilayer shrink wrap, moulded paint containers, fabric coatings, mud-guards, sound insulation and packaging foams. It is fully recyclable, GMO-free and does not compete with food crops.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sergio Fita of Aimplas</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> provided another comprehensive overview of the Technological Institute and its work on composites for those who joined the conference late. He reiterated the variability issue which arises because natural fibres are inherently variable and moisture sensitive and said AIMPLAS was working to overcome this deficiency. Examples of successes were the woven Flax/Jute battery case which used an epoxidised acrylate soybean-oil resin (ASEO); the Roadside Grit Box using wet compression moulded Flax/biobased unsaturated PET resin (thermoset); the woven flax/PLA tractor door, the Cayley project honeycombs based on FR-treated bio-resins and natural fibres and the Ecoplast project for automotive parts made by extruding PHB polymer onto flax fabrics, calendaring to impregnate and then moulding to shape.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-71573783707699393982014-09-03T16:25:00.001+01:002014-09-24T15:13:57.595+01:00Biopolymer Waste in Spain<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>More from AIMPLAS Valencia...</i></span><br />
<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Francesc Giró of the Catalonia Waste Agency </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">was concerned that the desertification now occurring in southern Europe needed to be corrected by adding massive amounts of organic matter to the soil, and this required more composting infrastructure. In reality 70% of waste organic matter in the region is still land-filled or incinerated and action was needed to allow this to be collected separately and composted. The target is to compost 50% of organic matter by 2020 and in Catalonia a tax on landfill and incineration is encouraging movement in this direction.</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">·</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -18pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Compostable bags need to be used for this collection.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">·</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -18pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Disposable nappies were a huge problem, accounting for 2.5% of all waste.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">·</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -18pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -18pt;">Compostable diapers could make a large contribution to compost production, but they were currently twice the price of the petro-diapers.</span></li>
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Judit Janasa of TOMRA Sorting and Recycling</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> commented on the difficulties of separating mixtures of plastics containing biopolymers but concluded that their sorting machines would soon be able to remove compostable bioplastics from the recycling stream. They have installed 3470 sorting machines worldwide, mostly in the Iberian peninsula. These machines use electromagnets, high intensity visible light, infra-red both transmitted and reflected, X-ray, atomic density, and laser fluorescence sensors to identify different materials.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The machines are tuned to the key wavelengths reflected or transmitted by each polymer and digital images taken at these wavelegths are analysed pixel-by-pixel so that for a bottle for example, the cap, label and body polymers are identified and recorded. Problems arise with black polymers (no reflection), and labels made of paper prevent the underlying polymer being seen. PLA and PET bottles which look identical can be separated easily. The software in use can be updated for every new polymer once samples have been tested.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Asked how multilayer bottles or films would be treated, Ms Janasa said the majority polymer would take precedence.</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-33552832459188929982014-08-12T15:46:00.000+01:002014-09-03T16:28:53.035+01:00Biopolymers from waste and Compostable Packaging<i style="background-color: white; color: #1a222a; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">More from AIMPLAS 2014 - Valencia..</i><br />
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mercedes Villa-Carvajal, a biotechnology researcher at the Ainia Technology</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Centre (Spain)</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> described the use of waste liquor from the orange juice processing industry to produce poly-hydroxybutyrate for bottle production. The PHB was compounded with cellulose fibres and fillers and injection moulded to make the bottles. (“Phbottle”)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Pretreatments</i> prepared the raw material to receive an inoculation of microorganisms. <i>Bioprocessing</i> involved fermentation and separation of the required monomer. <i>Post treatment</i> involved polymerisation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In principle, any carbon source (e.g. food waste) could be pretreated to receive any one of a range of microorganisms, patented or unpatented, GMO or not, provided with oxygen, and fermentation would result.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jordi Simon and Matthias Klausmann of BASF (Germany)</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> used the term BioCom to refer to their compostable polymer recommended for use where organic matter is left behind after the food has been taken out of the packaging. BioCom in fact appeared to be being used as a term of the biodegradable and compostable properties of their Ecoflex® polymers which could be made either from petro- or bio-based sources as required. Ecovio® is their blend of Ecoflex® and PLA.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ecovio® is finding applications as an agricultural mulch film and as a bag for food waste intended for composting. A new application was demonstrated at the conference, a 100% biodegradable coffee capsule designed to allow coffee and its carrier to be added to the compostable waste stream. The capsules packaging was also a 3 layer compostable film. The system had yet to be adopted by any of the major coffee capsule makers and appeared to be a unique design using a permeable tea-bag nonwoven top cover rather than air-tight foil.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-11945344729305127642014-07-30T19:24:00.000+01:002014-07-30T19:25:58.707+01:00Customised Bioplastics<i style="background-color: white; color: #1a222a; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">More from AIMPLAS 2014 - Valencia...</i><br />
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Chelo Escrig of AIMPLAS</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">ran through a range of bioplastics developments underway at AIMPLAS. A new</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">extrudable polyvinyl alcohol</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">had been developed and this allowed production of a 3-layer oxygen and moisture barrier film comprising polyvinyl alcohol sandwiched between layers of PLA (“C-Calpe” and “Bio4map”). It could also be co- injection moulded with polyethylene. PVOH was unique among polymers in that it was not polymerised in that form. Vinyl acetate was polymerised to PVAc and then hydrolysed back to PVOH.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>PLApack</b> was a highly plasticised version of PLA film which had low modulus and hence suitable for a wider range of packaging films.<br /><b>Hydrus</b> was a PLA tubing suitable for micro-irrigation with an operating temperature range up to 103<sup>o</sup>C.<br /><b>Biopolyim A</b> was a soft PLA containing newly developed plascticisers based on lactic acid oligomers.<br /><b>Innorex </b>was PLA produced without metal catalysts using ring-opening polymerisation of a lactide in a reactive extrusion process. The lactide was fed into an extruder with laser, microwave and ultrasound being shown as the initiators of the polymerisation.<br /><b>BioBottle</b> was injection moulded from PLA with supercritical CO<sub>2</sub> injected into the first of two extruders. The resulting volatiles were vented from the second extruder which delivered odour-free PLA to the mould.</span><br />
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">David Bertomeu of FKUR</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">reviewed their range of compounds for use in food packaging. They buy PLA, PHA, PBAT, PBS and Cellulose Acetate and compound them in different ways to make Bioflex®, Biograde®, and Fibrolon® for use in agricultural mulch films and flower-pots. For the catering industry they make a complete range of compostable plastic cups, plates, cutlery and disposal bags to that the entire table setting and any food waste can be gathered for delivery to the composter. They also buy biobased PE and make Terralene™ blends to get a range of properties which allow substitution of the full range of polyethylenes from LDPE to HDPE.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-70457652955805052014-07-12T22:34:00.001+01:002014-07-12T22:35:46.225+01:00Bio-based Polyamides<i style="background-color: white; color: #1a222a; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">More from AIMPLAS 2014 - Valencia...</i><br />
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pep Catalan, Sales Manager – Speciality Polyamides for Arkema (France) </b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">said they intended to continue to lead the field in production of high performance polyamides based on castor oil chemistry. Their Rilsan® process, established in the 1950’s as a way of avoiding the Dupont nylon patents, did not compete with food, avoided deforestation and used a crop which could be grown in semi-arid areas. It was now a high-performance, high temperature resistance bio-plastic for engineering applications.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Compared with the petro-polyamides, on a cradle to factory gate basis, it reduced global warming potential by up to 52%, saving 4.7 tonnes CO<sub>2</sub> emissions for every tonne of polymer produced.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A new elastomeric version, a PA/polyether block copolymer called “Pebax”, is now available. Here the PA is bio-based but the polyether isn’t. “Pebax Rnew” is however based on 95% renewable carbon and has high energy absorbtion and recovery. This springy polymer is being developed for running shoes and ski-boots.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Rilsan Clear” is a cycloaliphatic PA, now also bio-based. It has glass-like transparency.</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-55442913642435495772014-07-02T09:37:00.001+01:002014-07-03T20:30:30.583+01:00A New Engineering Bio-Composite<i style="background-color: white; color: #1a222a; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">More from AIMPLAS 2014 - Valencia...</i><br />
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Frank Steinbrecher of Mitsubishi Chemicals (Germany)</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">introduced Durabio®, a renewable durable polycarbonate-like bio-polymer based on isosorbide made from sorbitol which in turn came from glucose made from starch. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The technology had been developed by Roquette. In 2010 the Durabio® capacity was 300 tpa and last year it was 5000 tpa. The injection moulding grade has high hardness and the end-products are positioned between PMMA and PC for transparency. Compared with PC, Durabio® also performs better on weathering but is slightly worse for tensile strength. It is being used to make high-gloss coatings for mobile phones by injection moulding and as glass-replacements in roadside sound barriers by extrusion. Automotive parts are also made by extrusion and have proved to have the necessary optical, chemical and safety characteristics for interior trim. It is less flammable than either PMMA or PC. Asked if it was weldable to ABS like PC is, Mr Steinbecher thought it was, in principle, but Mitsubishi would be happy to test this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Mitsubishi’s GS Pla was their biodegradable polymer originally made from petrochemicals and now available from bio-succinic acid. Despite its name it is a polybutyl succinate and not a PLA.</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4288871407419876980.post-50434925625466023492014-06-26T17:00:00.001+01:002014-08-13T13:14:32.165+01:00Biopolymers in Nestlé<i style="color: #1a222a; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.790000915527344px;">More from AIMPLAS 2014 - Valencia...</i><br />
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<b style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Carlos de la Cruz, the Head of Regulatory Affairs for Nespresso Capsules</b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">criticised the industry for confusing consumers with too many eco-claims and argued that the packaging was the key to improvement. It not only protected the product and kept it fresh but could also be used to communicate with and educate the consumer. Communications had to be based on comprehensive life-cycle assessments of the food and its pack from farm to fork. Bioplastics made from foodcrops can improve the environment but crops do need fertilisers and pesticides. These are based on fossil carbon and have additional adverse impacts on the ecology per se. Irrigation if needed is a further negative impact in LCA terms. Furthermore, bioplastics food packs must protect the food from spoilage to the same extent as petro-polymers or the resulting extra wastage will easily nullify any benefits. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Examples of successful packaging using biopolymers where the benefits were explained on the packs included Purina One Beyond dog food, PLA twist wrap for sweets on Quality Street in the UK, Herta Sweet Ham using a 20% bio-sourced wrap in France, the Davy Milk carton bioplastic cap and “Vittel” water bottles using 30% biosourced PET in France. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Bioplastic Feedstock Alliance had been formed this year and brought together companies such as Nestlé, P&G, Unilever, Coca Cola, Heinz, Nike and Ford among others. The next generation of bioplastics (Gen 3) would be derived from non-food sources such as wood, waste, drought resistant plants and algae. (Gen 1 was PLA, described as food-based and unsuitable for widespread use in packaging. Gen 2 were the “drop-in” polymers suitable for widespread use but expensive and made from sugar via ethanol.)</span><br />
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