The Unique Conference Focused on Cellulose Fibres in Textiles, Hygiene and Packaging

Cellulose fibres are bio-based and biodegradable, even in marine habitats, where their degrading does not cause any microplastic.

250 participants and 30 exhibitors are expected in Cologne to discuss the following topics:

• Strategies, Policy Framework of Textiles and Market Trends

• New Opportunities for Cellulose Fibres in Replacing Plastics

• Sustainability and Environmental Impacts

• Circular Economy and Recyclability of Fibres

• Alternative Feedstocks and Supply Chains

• Ionic Liquids and New Technologies for Pulps, Fibres and Yarns

Sponsors

• New Technologies and Applications beyond Textiles

• Cellulose Fibre Based Packaging

• Cellulose Fibre Based Hygiene Products

Life cycle assessment of material footprint in recycling: A case of concrete recycling

Waste management, January 2023 ponse of WAAM parts is necessary. To this end, this paper investigates the structure-property relationship for thick-walled austenitic stainless steel WAAM parts experimentally and numerically using a mean-field crystal plasticity model. The major microstructural features are studied using optical microscopy and electron backscattered diffraction. A representative microstructure volume element is obtained with averaged features to study spatial variations in the microstructure across the WAAM part. Uniaxial tensile tests assisted with Digital Image Correlation along the transverse direction, diagonal (45o from the transverse direction), and building direction within the transverse direction-building direction plane are used to study the mechanical properties and associated deformation fields. The resulting heterogeneous microstructure with periodically alternating microstructural features reveals a clear anisotropic material behavior. Furthermore, distinct plastic deformation patterns for different loading directions arise from the spatially varying microstructure. The proposed crystal plasticity model adequately describes the crystallographic texture-induced orientation-dependent yield strength.

Meeting the current demand for concrete requires not only mining tons of gravel and sand, but also burning large amounts of fossil fuel resources in cement kilning. Consequently, concrete recycling is crucial to achieving a material-efficient society, especially with the application of various categories of concrete and the goal of phasing out fossil fuels. A comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) is used to assess the engineering material footprint (EMF) and the fossil fuel material footprint (FMF) in closed-loop recycling of three types of concrete: siliceous concrete, limestone concrete, and lightweight aggregate concrete. This study aims to investigate the impact of (i) concrete categories, (ii) methods to model recycling, and (iii) using renewable energy sources on the material footprint in concrete recycling. The results highlight that the concrete recycling system can reduce 99% of the EMF and 66–93% of the FMF compared with the baseline system, in which concrete waste is landfilled. All three recycling modeling approaches indicate that concrete recycling can considerably reduce EMF and FMF compared with the baseline system, primarily resulting from the displacement of virgin raw materials. Using alternative diesels is more sensitive than adopting renewable electricity in reduction of the FMF in concrete recycling. Replacing diesel with electrolysis- and coal-based synthetic diesel for concrete recycling could even increase the FMF, while using biodiesel made from rapeseed and wood-based synthetic diesel can reduce 47-51% and 84-89% of the FMF, respectively, compared to the virgin diesel-based recycling system. Finally, we discussed the multifunctionality and rebound effects of recycling, and double-counting risk in material and energy accounting.

Fig. 1. (a) Overview of the WAAM block with the target geometry and the employed deposition strategy. In color, the processing-based coordinate system is presented, where the transverse direction (TD) indicates the stacking direction of parallel weld beads, the building direction (BD) reveals the stacking direction of the layers, and the deposition direction (DD) corresponds to the length direction of the weld beads. The scanning direction, marked with a black arrow, is parallel to the DD and describes the trajectory of the welding torch during the printing process, alternating between the positive and negative DD for subsequent layers. (b) Manufactured 316LSi block with the corresponding processing-based coordinate system.

The article is online>

On the anisotropy of thick-walled wire arc additively manufactured stainless steel parts

Materials Science and Engineering: A, January 2023

Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) is an emerging group of methods for producing large parts with complex geometries and varying wall thicknesses. These parts usually exhibit anisotropic material behavior due to their intrinsic heterogeneous microstructure. To fully exploit the versatility of WAAM, a rigorous understanding of the relationship between processing conditions, microstructure, and mechanical res-

Toward a low-carbon and circular building sector: Building strategies and urbanization pathways for the Netherlands

Journal of Industrial Ecology, January 2023

Buildings are an important part of society's environmental impacts, both in the construction and in the use phase. As the energy performance of buildings improve, construction materials become more important as a cause of environmental impact. Less attention has been given to those materials. We explore, as an alternative for conventional buildings, the use of biobased materials and circular building practices. In addition to building design, we analyze the effect of urbanization. We assess the potential to close material cycles together with the material related impact, between 2018 and 2050 in the Netherlands. Our results show a limited potential to close material cycles until 2050, as a result of slow stock turnover and growth of the building stock. At present, end-of-life recycling rates are low, further limiting circularity. Primary material demand can be lowered when shifting toward biobased or circular construction. This shift also reduces material related carbon emissions. Large-scale implementation of biobased construction, however, drastically increases land area required for wood production. Material demand differs strongly spatially and depends on the degree of urbanization. Urbanization results in higher building replacement rates, but constructed dwellings are generally small compared to scenarios with more rural developments. The approach presented in this work can be used to analyze strategies aimed at closing material cycles in the building sector and lowering buildings' embodied environmental impact, at different spatial scales.

The article is online> fossil fuels contribute heavily to an unsustainable ecological footprint. As a result of the growing environmental awareness and the desire for a green future, sustainable production of acrylates and the development of acrylate alternatives derived from biorenewable resources have gained increased attention over the last decades. Although great progress has been made, the commercialization of a competing sustainable process has not yet been achieved due techno-economic challenges arising from the underdeveloped larger scale syntheses and expensive starting materials and reagents. In this thesis we implemented both strategies and present several new developments towards sustainable acrylate alternatives (alkoxybutenolides) and biobased acrylic acid, all starting from furfural and using oxygen and visible light for sustainable chemical transformations. In order to account for a larger scale synthesis, a photochemical reactor was developed for the continuous production of our sustainable building blocks. The resulting biobased coatings obtained from these alkoxybutenolides are hard, transparent and resistant to solvent and water, similar to commercial coatings. Above all, the coatings are functional and have tunable properties, based on the different building blocks we developed.

The thesis can be found here>

Functional wood for carbon dioxide capture Cell Reports Physical Science, February 2023

Building construction locations in the municipality of Amsterdam for pathway Urban (pink) and Rural (blue). When scenarios spatially overlap, locations are marked as purple. The black line marks the municipal border

Development of biobased building blocks, polymers and coatings

Thesis University of Groningen, January 2023

Coatings are omnipresent in daily life, indispensable in construction and applied everywhere around us to enhance the durability and aesthetics of numerous products ranging from cars to wood to electronics. One of the most conventional sets of building blocks used to build these polymer chains, justified by their high reactivity and broad versatility, are the petrochemical feedstock derived acrylates. Despite their promise, the high demand and the resulting large-scale production from

With increasing global climate change, integrated concepts to innovate sustainable structures that can multiaxially address CO2 mitigation are crucial. Here, we fabricate a functional wood structure with enhanced mechanical performance via a top-down approach incorporating a high-performance metal-organic framework (MOF), Calgary framework 20 (CALF-20). The functional wood with 10% (w/w) CALF-20 can capture CO2 with an overall gravimetric capacity of 0.45 mmol/g at 1 bar and 303 K that scales linearly with the MOF loading. Interestingly, the functional wood surpasses the calculated normalized adsorption capacity of CALF-20 stemming from the mesoporous wood framework, pore geometry modulation in CALF-20, and favorable CO2 uptake interactions. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations elucidate strong interactions between CALF-20 and the cellulose backbone and an understanding of how such interactions can favorably modulate the pore geometry and CO2 physisorption energies. Thus, our work opens an avenue for developing sustainable composites that can be utilized in CO2 capture and structural applications.

The article is online>

Mind the Pulp: Environmental and economic assessment of a sugar beet pulp biorefinery for biobased chemical production

Waste Management January 2021

Sugar beet pulp, a byproduct from sugar beet refining, is used by farmers as fertilizer or sold as animal feed. Both options underestimate the potential of sugar beet pulp as a platform to produce specialty and bulky chemicals as a promising pathway for sustainable biochemicals – mind the pulp. This study proposes a biorefinery concept to produce food additives (pectin-derived oligosaccharides) and bulky chemicals (terephthalic acid). Since the biorefinery has a low technology readiness level (TRL = 1), it is relevant to evaluate the feasibility of this biorefinery concept to provide guidance (at an early stage) on the environmental and economic advantages and limitations. For this purpose, the life cycle assessment and techno-economic assessment frameworks are used to assess the environmental impact and economic performance of the biobased terephthalic acid, respectively. Moreover, environmental impacts are accounted for in economic terms using different monetary valuation methods (environmental prices, Ecovalue12, and Ecotax). The environmental impact of biobased terephthalic acid was higher in most impact categories than the fossil counterpart, depending on the selected allocation approach (mass vs economic). The economic feasibility of the proposed biorefinery is highly dependent on the pectin-derived oligosaccharides market price and the valorization of byproducts (humins and levulinic acid). The selection of the monetary valuation method is critical for monetizing environmental impacts when comparing biobased against fossil-based alternatives.

The article is online>

Safety of recycled plastics and textiles: Review on the detection, identification and safety assessment of contaminants

Chemosphere, January 2023

In 2019, 368 mln tonnes of plastics were produced worldwide. Likewise, the textiles and apparel industry, with an annual revenue of 1.3 trillion USD in 2016, is one of the largest fast-growing industries. Sustainable use of resources forces the development of new plastic and textile recycling methods and implementation of the circular economy (reduce, reuse and recycle) concept. However, circular use of plastics and textiles could lead to the accumulation of a variety of contaminants in the recycled product. This paper first reviewed the origin and nature of potential hazards that arise from recycling processes of plastics and textiles. Next, we reviewed current analytical methods and safety assessment frameworks that could be adapted to detect and identify these contaminants. Various contaminants can end up in recycled plastic. Phthalates are formed during waste collection while flame retardants and heavy metals are introduced during the recycling process. Contaminants linked to textile recycling include; detergents, resistant coatings, flame retardants, plastics coatings, antibacterial and anti-mould agents, pesticides, dyes, volatile organic compounds and nanomaterials. However, information is limited and further research is required. Various techniques are available that have detected various compounds, However, standards have to be developed in order to identify these compounds. Furthermore, the techniques mentioned in this review cover a wide range of organic chemicals, but studies covering potential inorganic contamination in recycled materials are still missing. Finally, approaches like TTC and CoMSAS for risk assessment should be used for recycled plastic and textile materials.

The article is online>

Organo-functionalized inorganic nanofiltration membranes through engineering at the molecular level

Thesis Univeristy of Twente, MESA+ Institute, October 2022

A membrane is generally a selective barrier through which one or more components of a mixture can be selectively removed. Compared to their polymeric counterparts, inorganic membranes can be used under harsh conditions, such as high temperatures or pressures. However, their potential has not yet been fully explored. The Ph.D. thesis 'Organo-functionalized inorganic nanofiltration membranes through engineering at the molecular level' expands on the prospects of polymer-functionalized inorganic, i.e., hybrid, membranes. By combining polymeric and inorganic materials in a single hybrid membrane, we can use both materials' advantages. In this thesis, the different hybrid membranes developed were tested in water, solvents, and their mixtures to understand these membranes' capabilities under 'real' industrial conditions. Different approaches were used to develop these hybrid membranes, including surface-initiated (grafting-from) in-situ polymerizations or simple methods to covalently link commercial polymers on the inorganic substrates (grafting-to).

Additionally, novel methodologies, such as the thio-bromo "click" reaction, were used to control the polymer growth and reduce the environmental footprint of membrane fabrication methods. This work opens new avenues for research and industrial interest in hybrid inorganic membranes.

The thesis kan be downloaded here>

Glassman Europe

15 - 16 March 2023, Istanbul

Fastener Fair Stuttgart

21 - 23 March 2023, Stuttgart

International Conference on Masonry Construction and Masonry Materials

27 - 28 March 2023, Paris

3D Delta Week

27 - 31 March 2023, Benelux

European Coatings Show 2022

28 - 30 March 2023, Nurnberg

Hannover Messe

17 - 21 April 2023 Hannover

BAU München

17 - 22 April 2023, Munich

Conference on CO2-based Fuels and Chemicals 2023

19 - 20 April 2023, Cologne

De Nederlandse Metaaldagen

2023

19 - 21 April 2023 Den Bosch

JEC World International Composites Event

25 - 27 April 2023, Paris

BioMAT 2023

3 - 4 May 2023, Weimar

Munich creative business week 2023

6 - 14 May 2023, Munich

PCIM Europe

9 - 11 May 2023, Nurnberg

KUTENO Kunststofftechnik Nord

9 - 11 May 2023, Rheda-Wiedenbrück

Ceramics and Composite Materials

10 - 11 May 2023, Zürich

MIX Noordoost

10 - 11 May 2023, Hardenberg

Plastics Recycling Show Europe 2023

10 - 11 May 2023, Amsterdam

Łódź Design Festival

12 - 22 May 2023, Łódź

Houtbouwbeurs

23 - 25 May 2023, Den Bosch

Renovatiebeurs

23 - 25 May 2023, Den Bosch

Renewable Materials Conference 2023

23 - 25 May 2023, Siegburg/ Keulen

FIT show 2023

23 - 25 May 2023, Birmingham

Maintenance Dortmund

24 - 25 May 2023, Dortmund

SurfaceTechnology GERMANY

4 - 6 June 2024, Stuttgart