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Green Science Alliance Co. Ltd. (Kawanishi, Japan), a group company of Fuji Pigment Co. Ltd. (Kawanishi, Japan) announced Sept. 27 it has established a manufacturing process for mixing nano cellulose with various thermoplastic plastics.

Nano Cellulose is derived from natural biomass resources such as trees, plants and waste woods and is therefore recyclable and biodegradable. It has low thermal expansion coefficient, comparable to that of glass fiber, although its elasticity modulus is higher than that of glass fiber, making it a hard, strong and robust material. The material shows potential for automotive, aeronautic, architectural and other applications while having a positive environmental impact.

Green Science Alliance Co. Ltd. has combined nano cellulose with various thermoplastic plastics so far, namely, polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC), polystylene (PS), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polycarbonate (PC), poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), polyamide 6 (PA6), poly vinyl butyral (PVB). In addition, recently, the company successfully established a manufacturing process for mixing nano cellulose with various types of biodegradable plastics including poly lactic acid (PLA), poly butylene adipate terephthalate (PBAT), poly butylene succinate (PBS), polycaprolactone, starch based plastic and biodegradable plastics produced by microorganism such as polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA).

In the near future the company aims to make products such as food trays and boxes, straws, cups and cup lids with this biodegradable plastic/nano cellulose composite. They are also plan to apply supercritical foaming technology, in order to make biodegradable plastic mold products even lighter and stronger.