Developed microfibrillated cellulose(MFC) using a portable and adjustable manufacturing machine and started providing samples

Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd. (head office : Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo,President and Representative Director: Toru Nozawa, hereinafter referred to as"the Company”) is a cellulose fiber with a fiber width that can be customized to nano~micro order by a portable and adjustable manufacturing machine. Microfibrillated cellulose (MFC) will be developed and samples will be available. This MFC is made of TEMPO oxidized pulp, which is the raw material for the Company Cellulose nanofiber, or carboxymethyl cellulose with low substitution degree, and the defiberization method and degree of defiberization can be freely changed and set. Since it can be manufactured according to each application, such as viscosity, transparency, water retention, gel feel, etc., it has the potential to be used in a variety of industrial compounds and food and cosmetic additives, just like the CNF (cellenpia® series) currently on sale, and is also suitable for mass production and mass use, so it is expected to be suitable for spraying materials in the agricultural and civil engineering fields. The Company will manufacture samples of this MFC at our Fuji mill(Fuji City, Shizuoka Prefecture) using two types of portable and adjustable manufacturing machines.

 

The MFC portable and adjustable manufacturing machine Recruitment two methods: a nozzle type, which is easy to finely adjust the transparency and viscosity of MFC with various variations, and a disc type, which has excellent mass production of MFC. The fiber width can be freely adjusted from a few nanometers to a micrometer order. Both TEMPO oxidized MFCs and CM (carboxymethylated MFCs) are available as standard products, but physical properties such as transparency and viscosity can be customized upon request. In addition, the machine has a relatively compact design and is easy to transport and assemble, so it can be installed at the MFC use location and fed with raw pulp to produce and usecellulosefibers with different degrees of definement on-site as needed, which is a significant cost reduction compared to transporting and using the water dispersion CNF on-site. The Company will also consider lending and selling this portable and adjustable manufacturing machine in the future.

We produce TEMPO the Company oxidized CNF (Note 1) at the Ishinomaki mill for general industrial applications, and Carboxymethylated CNF (CM-based CNF) (Note 2) at the Ezumillfor food and cosmetics applications, and sell them nationwide. In addition, at the Fuji mill,CNF-Reinforced Resin"cellenpia Plas®(cellenpia Plus®)” is being developed in collaboration with Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd., and is providing samples to each user (Note 3), and since November last year, CNF-blended "cellenpia Elas®(cellenpia Eras ®)”(Note 4). Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd.will accelerate the creation of newinnovative materialsand CNFs as"a comprehensive biomass company shaping the future with trees”through the production and sales of"cellenpia® Series”, and contribute to the promotion of plastic reduction and global warming countermeasures.

(Note 1) CNF produced by oxidizing cellulose(raw pulp) by TEMPO catalyst and then slightly defining. Very thin CNF with fiber width approx. 3nm

(Note 2) CNF produced by carboxymethylation (CM) of cellulose(raw material pulp) and minor defibering. CNF https://www.nipponpapergroup.com/products/cnf/ with fiber width of several nm~tens of nm　

(Note 3) Nippon Paper Industries "Yamaha Motor and CNF-Reinforced Resin Collaboration on Application Development”https://www.nipponpapergroup.com/news/year/2022/news221116005347.html

(Note 4) Nippon Paper Industries "celenpia Elas^TM Samples of Natural Rubber Containing CNF Launched”https://www.nipponpapergroup.com/news/year/2022/news221205005358.html