CELLULOSE
EXPLORING
Cellulose Waste Utilization Forms of Cellulose, Including Waste, Have Potential to Offer Competitive Performance to Synthetics with Environmental Benefits By Marie O’Mahony
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ovel forms of cellulose, including waste, are being developed to of fer c omp etitive performance to synthetics with environmental benefits. Some of these will be very familiar, such as cotton, but others such as lignin, less so. As the technology to manufacture these materials advances so is the exploration of application areas where they have the potential to reduce e-waste and reuse valuable metals currently being lost to landfill and waterways. Fiber manufacturers, textile designers and traditional craft techniques from Japan are all exploring the use of cellulose waste in quite different ways. Cellulose materials such as wisteria, banana leaf, cotton and hemp were traditionally used and reused in Japan, while fiber manufacturers and contemporary textile designers are also turning to materials such as citrus peel, pineapple and seaweed to produce jacquard woven fabric. At Asahi Kasei’s Sustainable Polymers Lab in Japan, researchers are developing cellulose nanofibers (CNFs). The company has successfully combined CNF with
polyamide and polyacetal and lab manager Tomofumi Maekawa, they hope to be in a position to offer commercial quantities in the next two years. The process predominantly uses wood fiber, but the company is also working with cotton linter, the “fluff ” around the seed that carries a high cellulose content. The CNF has very good sliding properties that make it ideal for applications where movement and wear are issues, such as composite gears. The company are looking at largescale applications such as the replace-
Details from a Basho-fu jacket from the mid twentieth century comes from the Okinawa area of Japan using a type of wild banana leaf commonly found in the region.* Marie O’Mahony
ment of glass fiber reinforced plastics (GFRPs), to offer a more sustainable alternative to glass fiber. First there are issues of strength, scale for commercialization and cost to be overcome. Transparency will also be important, showing evidence of the environmental impact of the production and chemicals used, but ahead of that the source of the cotton itself. At launch, the automotive interior is likely to be the first major sector to adopt. It is a market that is ready, but also one that is already becoming populated. Researchers at the VTT Technical Research Center of Finland are addressing two environmental needs in their development of The original paper used in the making of ashehajiki was taken from used account books. These would have been painstakingly cut and the ink columns dispersed during the process of making the garment’s paper cordage. In the detail of Siân Bowen’s recreation of a Japanese ashehajiki garment, banana leaves are used to make abaca paper instead. Marie O’Mahony
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