Tag Archives: 2012 TAPPI International Conference on Renewable Nanomaterials

Paper and Fibre Research Institute holds nanocellulose party/seminar

My ears always prick up when I come across a nanocellulose story and this Sept. 26, 2012 news item on Nanowerk features a nanocellulose seminar hosted by the Paper and Fibre Institute (PFI) in Norway (Note: I have removed a link),

PFI has the pleasure to organize the 4th research seminar about cellulose and their nanomaterials. The seminar will take place at PFI in Norway, on November 14-15, 2012. This will be a follow-up of the successful seminars in Trondheim 2006, 2008, 2010. The seminar offers an excellent scientific program, including topics which reflect the most recent advances from basic research to practical applications.

During the last years it has been considerable interest in cellulose nanofibrils [emphasis mine] due to the wide range of potential areas of application. This includes replacement for plastics, reinforcement of composite materials, boosting paper properties, barrier material in packaging and bio-medical applications.

As per the term I highlighted, cellulose nanofibrils, KarenS very kindly dropped by my Aug. 2, 2012 posting on nanocellulose research to explain some of the terminology that gets tossed around,

From my understanding, nanocrystaline cellulose (NCC), cellulose nanocrystals (CNC), cellulose whiskers (CW) and cellulose nanowhiskers (CNW) are all the same stuff: cylindrical rods of crystalline cellulose (diameter: 5-10 nm; length: 20-1000 nm). Cellulose nanofibers or nanofibrils (CNF), on the contrary, are less crystalline and are in the form of long fibers (diameter: 20-50 nm; length: up to several micrometers).

There is still a lot of confusion on the nomenclature of cellulose nanoparticles, but nice explanations (and pictures!) are given here (and also in other papers from the same [TAPPI 2012 in Montréal] conference):

http://www.tappi.org/Downloads/Conference-Papers/2012/12NANO/12NANO49.aspx

Thank you KarenS, I really appreciate the clarification and the link to additional information.

Back to the main event, I went to the webpage for the 4th research seminar about cellulose and their nanomaterials and found a listing of the speakers,

Tsuguyuki Saito (University of Tokyo):  “Material Properties of TEMPO-Oxidized Cellulose Nanofibrils: In bulk and Individual Forms”
Lars Berglund (KTH): “Unexplored materials property space – does nanofibrillated cellulose provide new possibilities?”
Michel Schenker (Omya): “Toward Nano-fibrillated Pigmented Cellulose Composites”
Anette Hejnesson-Hulten (Eka):  “Chemically Pretreated  MFC – Process, Manufacturing and Application”
Kriistina Oksman (Luleå Univ.of Techn): “Nanocelluloses extracted from  bio residues and their use in composites”
J.M. Lagaron (CSIC): “Nanocellulose as a reinforcing material in packaging films”
Tomas Larsson (Innventia): “Determining the specific surface area of NFC by CP/MAS 13C-NMR”
Tekla Tammelin, (VTT): “Dense NFC films with several opportunities for additional functionalities”
Kristin Syverud (PFI): “A biocompatibility study of microfibrillated cellulose”
Øyvind Gregersen (NTNU): “The effect of microfibrillated cellulose on the pressability and paper properties of TMP and ground calcium carbonate (GCC) based sheets”
Gary Chinga Carrasco (PFI): “Characterization of the fibrillation degree of various MFC materials and its implication on critical properties”
Marianne Lenes (PFI): “MFC as barrier material – possibilities and challenges”
Laura Alexandrescu (NTNU): “MFC filters for environmental particle filtration”
Per Stenius (NTNU): “Nanofibrils – do they fulfill the promises?”

Dag Høvik (Research Council of Norway): “Strategic research programmes within Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials in Norway, 2002-2021”.

Interestingly given our work in this field, there don’t seem to be any Canadians on the speaker list.  I imagine that this is largely due to the fact that they have healthy and active research community in Norway and this is not really an international affair.

TAPPI 2012 nanotechnology conference in Canada

This coming Monday, June 4 to Thursday, June 7, 2012, the Nanotechnology for Renewable Materials conference (2012 TAPPI [Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry] International Conference) will be taking place in Montréal, Québec.

As one might expect, there’s going to be a major emphasis on nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) and Celluforce’s new NCC production plant in Windsor, Québec. Keynote speakers for the conference include (from the Keynote Speakers webpage),

Dr. Dylan J. Boday
Advisory Engineer Team Lead
IBM’s Materials Engineering Laboratory

Dr. Dylan J. Boday is the Advisory Engineer Team Lead for IBM’s Materials Engineering Laboratory. In this role, he leads efforts across multiple divisions to advance technological capabilities and enhance product performance.

Dylan’s research at IBM focuses on creating inventive pathways toward the development of polymers, composites, surface science, nanoparticles and hybrid materials. He has organized several strategic partnerships to leverage new materials development that align with specific business needs for IBM. He also established and now leads a global team focused on the sustainability of IBM’s products and is the co-lead of an upcoming international conference that will focus on the advances and challenges of sustainable materials.

As a member of the American Chemical Society Polymer Board, he provides leadership to the broader polymer science field. His technical contributions have led to more than 30 patent filings in the areas of electrostatic discharge and thermally conductive composites, functional nanomaterials and printed circuit board materials. He also has numerous published articles on composites, self healing materials and anti-corrosion coatings, in addition to serving as a reviewer for several scientific journals. In 2011, he was named an IBM Master Inventor and is a member of the IBM Smarter Planet invention review board.

Dylan holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and a doctorate degree in Materials Engineering from the University of Arizona.

Jean Moreau
President and Chief Executive Officer
CelluForce

As President and CEO of CelluForce since February 2011, Jean Moreau brings a wealth of experience in finance, operations and business development which he acquired in both private and public corporations, in various fields including manufacturing, entertainment, distribution and consumer goods.

A chartered accountant for over 10 years at Arthur Andersen and Co., Mr. Moreau was responsible for the acquisition of numerous large companies and plants.

Among others, he headed financial and production planning teams as Vice President of Finance, Paper Production sector and Vice President of Supply for Domtar. As Chief Financial Officer, he was also involved in the introduction of the Supremex Income Fund on the Toronto Stock Exchange, raising $300M in capital funding and, in addition was responsible for the implementation of a strategic business plan at Guess Canada, which was subsequently named one of Canada’s 50 Best Managed Companies.

As head of the CelluForce team, Jean wished to promote, within several sectors of activity, the development of commercial applications related to NCC around the world, thus ensuring the company’s manufacturing and commercial growth.

Jean Hamel, Eng.
Vice President
FPInnovations

Jean Hamel, Eng., Vice President, FPInnovations, received his B.Sc. (1983), and M. Eng. (1985), in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Sherbrooke. He joined Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada (Paprican) as a Research Engineer to work on the technical development, optimization and troubleshooting of paper finishing equipment.

In 1995 he joined St-Laurent Paperboard as a Senior Process Engineer to work on product development, paper machine optimization and start-up of new finishing equipment. In 1996, he returned to Paprican where he led the construction of the pilot paper machine and developed the new Roll Testing Facility, the first business unit concept of the organization. In 2004 he became Manager of the Product Performance Program. Soon after merging of three research institutes (Paprican, Forintek, FERIC) to form FPInnovations in 2007, he was named the Director of Research for the Pulp & Paper Division of FPInnovations where he focused on accelerating the technology transfer and developing new innovation processes.

Since 2009 he has been the Vice President of FPInnovations, leading the innovation program on pulp and paper and shifting the R&D effort to develop new chemicals, biomaterials and composites from wood fibers. He currently sits on the boards of CelluForce, a Domtar-FPInnovations joint venture on nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) production, Sustainable Chemistry Alliance (SCA), ICGQ, ADRIQ and NSERC Green Fiber Network.

Andy Atkinson
Manager, Emerging Sciences Policy
Policy, Planning and Coordination Division
Strategic Policy Branch
Health Canada

Andrew Atkinson is currently Manager of the Emerging Science Policy group under the Strategic Policy Branch of Health Canada.

Andrew is currently overseeing coordination of science policy issues across the various regulatory and research programs under the mandate of Health Canada. Prior to Health Canada, he was a manager under Environment Canada’s CEPA new chemicals program, where he oversaw chemical and nanomaterial risk assessments, as well as the development of risk assessment methodologies.

In parallel to domestic work, he has been actively engaged in ISO and OECD nanotechnology efforts, including co-chairing groups on nomenclature of nano-objects under ISO TC229.

It seems more heavily weighted towards Canadian keynote speakers with, as I hinted earlier,  a special nod to CelluForce. I did glance through the full conference programme and see that there is  healthy representation internationally (Hungary, China, Finland, US, Sweden, Japan, Alberta [sometimes that province does seem like a separate country],  etc.).

After hearing a murmur about developing standards for nanocellulose at the Feb. 2012 annual meeting of the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS), I was excited to find this on on p. 8 of the conference programme,

The success of the 2011 Workshop on International Standards for Nancellulose has resulted in writing of the Roadmap for the Development of International Standards for Nanocellulose (Draft 4). Since then TAPPI has formed the International Nanocellulose Standards Coordination Committee (INSCC) in its Nanotechnology Division to house and coordinate the execution of the Roadmap. The 2012 Workshop on International Standards for Nancellulose will bring workshop participants up-to-date on nanocellulose standards activities since the completion of the Roadmap (Draft 4), initiate coordination activities in several areas of nanocellulose standards development, and if necessary, discuss revisions to the Roadmap.

Perhaps one of these days they’ll have a final version of their Roadmap.

I last mentioned this annual conference in my Sept. 24, 2009 posting when it was held in Alberta and made passing references to the 2010 edition in Finland during an interview (my Aug. 27, 2010 posting) with Dr. Richard Berry of FPInnovations and to the 2011 edition in Washington, DC in my June 6, 2011 posting about the formation, by Domtar and FPInnovations, of CelluForce.

As for the 2012 edition, I wonder if they considered inviting Janelle Tam, the 16 year old student who won a national award for her work on a new application for NCC (my Disease-fighting and anti-aging with nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) and Janelle Tam posting on May 11, 2012) to this conference. In any event, her national win entitled her to compete for an international award in Boston, Massachusetts June 18, 2012.