pps proceeding - Abstract Preview
pps proceeding
Symposium: S10 - Reactive Processing
Oral Presentation
 
 

Reactive modification of lignin towards recyclable sustainable biomaterials

Lo Re Giada (1)*, Avella Angelica (1), Gioia Claudio (2), Ruda Marcus (3), Roulin Thomas (3), Carrick Christopher (3)

(1) Department of Industrial and Materials Science, Chalmers University of Technology - Gothenburg - Sweden, (2) Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental, and Materials Engineering, University of Bologna - Bologna - Italy, (3) Lignin Industries AB - Knivsta - Sweden

As packaging constitutes more than 40 % of the annual plastic production and waste, novel sustainable materials with potential application in this field are needed to limit the environmental impact of plastics. In particular, biodegradable materials can be employed to reduce the hazards of plastic dispersion in the ecosystems, and benefit of the incorporation of bio-sourced lignocelluloses to improve their properties and renewable content. In this work, biomaterials based on lignin and biodegradable poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) were developed, maximizing the renewable content while preserving their processability for film blowing. In a first step, the plasticisation of lignin was designed by reactive extrusion with a bio-sourced fatty acid to obtain a thermoplastic (Renol) with almost 90 wt.% lignin content. Thermal analysis showed a tuneable reduction of raw lignin glass transition temperature as a function of fatty acid content. Lignin plasticisation was further confirmed by infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopies, which unravelled the reaction mechanism of the fatty acid grafting onto lignin. Thanks to the achieved thermoplasticity of Renol, its melt blending with PBAT enabled the production of biomaterials up to 80 wt.% lignin content. Compared to raw lignin/PBAT reference, Renol provided the biomaterials with larger deformability and toughness, thus enabling film blowing up to 35 wt.% lignin content with potential for packaging applications. To provide end-of-life strategies of the film blown biomaterials, their mechanically recycling was successfully carried out after aging for a year of the blown films in room conditions, indicating the possibility of the Renol-based biomaterial circularity. This research enabled the scaling-up of the reactive extrusion of Renol from lab- to pilot-scale with a running production rate of 350 kg/h, providing the front product of the Swedish company Lignin Industries.