At a factory in
Belgium, a new breed of products is being developed from the fibrous remains of
sugar cane. It is a raw material with plenty of potential.
Wim Van Rhijn, the General
Manager of TransFurans Chemicals explains: “In the Dominican Republic we start
from sugar cane. First the sugar is extracted, and then you obtain the bagasse.
This is our starting raw material.
Hans Hoydonckx, the
Business Development Manager of TransFurans Chemicals continues: “This woody
material is cooked at a high temperature and from the cooking you get a pure
chemical, and this is called Furfural, it smells like almonds.
“This is the basis of
our new products, so we have a full polymer form of furfuryl alcohol and we
impregnate various substrates with it.”
The bioresin made by
TransFurans Chemicals aims to be a more sustainable and
environmentally-friendly replacement for oil-based plastics.
“The first example is
the interior market,” explains Hoydonckx. “There we make decorative high
pressure laminates. We also made components for the automotive industry, so
this is also bioresin, moulded at high temperatures, but here we replaced the
paper with a natural fibre.
“The resin structure also
reinforces textile and the textile still biodegrades, but much more slowly than
this does. So you have several seasons of service life in a textile before it
starts disintegrating into the soil structure. Here we actually replace
standard thermoplastics like polyethelene,” adds Hoydonckx.
This bioresin
technology has been developed over the course of several EU research projects.
Input and testing from
universities has helped to create products that are ready for market. The next
step is identifying the right sectors to target with your ‘new green
materials’.
Wim Van Rhijn, General Manager, at TransFurans
Chemicals concludes: “Products from biomass are interesting, it is nice to have
an eco or a bio label on your product, but it’s not enough most of the time,
you have to bring more added value to the market.”
Source: euronews