Cellulose Powder

FineCell’s Cellulose Powder is a micro-sized cellulose fiber made from plant fibers. 

It's a sustainable reinforcement for making lighter and more sustainable thermoplastic composites for a wide range of applications (e.g. automotive interiors, consumer goods).

For specialists in thermoplastic composites, we offer cellulose powder as a sustainable reinforcement with the following benefits:

• EASY TO USE

Dry and fine powders that suit melt-compounding processes.

• GOOD COMPATIBILITY

Thanks to its unique surface functionality, our cellulose powder can easily be made compatible with different thermoplastic formulations.

• LIGHTWEIGHTING

Due to the strong reinforcing effect provided by our cellulose powder, materials can be made by using much less thermoplastics, and thereby the materials’ weights can be significantly reduced, whereas their mechanical properties are not deteriorated.

• IMPROVED SUSTAINABILITY

Enable reduction of carbon footprint of the material by improving the sustainable factions (+30-50%) in it.

WHY CELLULOSE?

Cellulose micro-/nanofibers are very promising reinforcements for thermoplastics, as they’re the strongest materials grown in nature and outperform the other types of bio-based fibers and minerals in reinforcing thermoplastics.

CHALLENGES

Today, cellulose micro-/nanofibers are mostly made and delivered as water-based gels, which have to be dried before compounding. But doing so consumes extra time and energy. Further, cellulose microfibers have poor compatibility with molten plastics during compounding, which doesn’t allow the resulting composites to perform better than neat plastics, and sometimes, even worse.

FINECELL’S SOLUTION

Unlike these solutions, our cellulose microfibers are delivered as dry powders that can directly be used for compounding. Thanks to its unique surface functionality, our cellulose microfibers can easily be made compatible with different thermoplastic formulations.

OUR RESULT SO FAR

In our previous trials, a composite consisting of 30% of our cellulose microfiber and 70% polypropylene (PP) could perform as good as the neat PP, whereas its weight is 45% lower. Moreover, the composite is more sustainable than the neat PP, as it contained 30% sustainable fractions. We’re now working together with our partners to exploit the full potential of our cellulosic reinforcement, which is 70% lightweighting.

Want to know more about our cellulose powder’s application in reinforcing thermoplastic composites? Find the details and an example case on the right of this page (see "Documents").