Location: Bioproducts Research
Project Number: 2030-30600-002-006-T
Project Type: Trust Fund Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 22, 2025
End Date: Sep 21, 2026
Objective:
Global demand for sustainable materials is rising due to stricter environmental regulations and growing consumer awareness. Nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) is a biobased material that offers exceptional performance and can replace synthetic polymers, plastics, and fibers in various applications, including packaging, automotive, construction, agriculture, and more. Despite its vast potential as a sustainable replacement to petroleum-based materials, NFC’s high production costs and limited supply hinder its widespread adoption.
The research problem we are trying to solve in this project is reducing the cost of NFC production and developing new processing technologies that can bring NFC to commercialization at large-scale. To solve this problem, this work aims to isolate NFCs from underutilized, low-cost biomass such as agricultural coproduct residues via a more cost-effective conversion process technology. Agricultural residues offer an abundant and renewable source of cellulose, presenting a significant environmental and cost advantage over traditional bleached pulp used for producing NFCs. This approach not only reduces the environmental impact of NFC production, but also adds value to agricultural by-products. Additionally, challenges such as optimizing extraction processes and ensuring cost-efficiency remain. The Cooperator, VERDE Nanomaterials Inc., has novel process to isolate NFC from waste biomass in a low-cost, low-impact, and scalable manner. In addition to isolating NFCs from underutilized biomass, this work also aims to characterize these NFCs to understand the relationship between biomass source and nanofiber properties. The application of NFCs will also be investigated in different forms, including films, aerogels, and composites that are suitable for a wide range of applications.
Approach:
Objective 1: Isolation and characterization of nanofibrillated cellulose from underutilized biomass (agricultural coproduct residues).
Sub-objective 1A: Convert agricultural coproduct residues into NFCs using the Collaborator’s proprietary conversion process.
Sub-objective 1B: Characterize NFCs obtained in Sub-objective 1A to understand how the feedstock can affect NFC properties.
Objective 2: Evaluation of application potential of nanofibrillated cellulose in films, aerogels, and/or composites.
Sub-objective 2A: Incorporate NFCs produced in Objective 1 into different forms of products (films, aerogels, and/or composites).
Sub-objective 2B: Test the products for relevant performance metrics, such as mechanical strength, thermal degradation, stabilization, barrier properties, etc.