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Cellucomp: Repurposing the root vegetable waste into nano cellulosic fibre
Last updated: Oct 14, 2021
Summary
1. The waste streams from the root crops/vegetables are repurposed into micro fibrillated cellulose known as Curran®, using the green chemistry processes.
2. They are majorly working on making Curran® a very well known sales product to enhance various industries like sporting goods, construction, paints & coatings, cosmetics, automobile, marine and many other potential applications. It is known for its exceptional mechanical and rheological properties, which makes it a go-to product in the above-mentioned industries.
3.Curran® is a brain child of two material scientists, which was made by repurposing the Residual Sugar Beet pulp into nano-fibres, which are light, strong, can form a film, provide sheer-thinning viscosity, have a good suspension property, are stable regardless of pH.
4. At Cellucomp, the scientists are working to add further value to the residues from their own production processes by commercialising it into bio-fuels or a commodity chemicals.
Problem
The thickeners used in various industries are either petrochemical or produced using the land that could otherwise be used for food production
Solution
Curran® is a material developed from the extraction of nanocellulose fibres of root vegetables, primarily from sugar beet pulp, a by-product of the sugar industry, which acts as an additive or a natural thickener for various common water-based polymer systems.
Outcome
1. The Curran® production process increases the economic value by an estimated factor of 50, by extracting value from quite an under-utilised product.
2. It has lower unit energy consumption compared to other paint thickeners and reduces the carbon footprint of the residue food/sugar processing industries by repurposing it.
3. "We want to be as sustainable as possible and Curran® is produced using green chemistry processes. We only use by-products and residues from agriculture and food processing as we do not want our feedstocks to compete with land for growing food.”-Dr Eric Whale, Co-Founder
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Date added: Oct 14, 2021
Last updated: Oct 14, 2021
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