Conversion of agricultural waste, sludges and pulp residues into nanofibers for innovative polymer composites

Abstract

Agricultural waste fractions from seasonal crops (corn stover, bagasse, flax), sludges and paper pulp residues contain an important source of lignocellulosic materials that can be recovered and used as material fractions instead of being burnt for energy recovery. Due to the heterogeneity of named products, however, novel processing routes should be developed for the recovery of the lignocellulosic materials at nanoscale. Therefore, we will use nanotechnological routes to transform the residues into nanoscale fibers, such as fibrillated cellulose and cellulose nanowhiskers. In first part of the project, we will inventory available residual streams and make full chemical and physical characterization of the available sources in order to be able to categorize them and getting insight in their heterogeneous properties. Based on this, the processing conditions for the transformation of the lignocellulosic fractions into novel nanoscale building-blocks with different geometries will be studied and optimized. Therefore, either mechanical or chemical conversion routes will be investigated. In particular, we will apply novel “green” solvent techniques for the conversion and separation of cellulose and lignin fractions. It is the goal to define optimum processing conditions for reproducible conversion of the biomass. In second part of the project, the produced materials will be used as fillers and processed in combination with different bio-based polymers such as PLA (resulting from side-fractions of corn) in order to act as a reinforcement or active filler. Therefore, we will study and optimize the processing conditions for extrusion of the nanocomposite materials. Finally, we consider to build a valorization model for innovative and high-valued composite nanomaterials from named residues can contribute to a more sustainable development.