B1-02 Development of recycled- and bio-plastic composites utilizing dry-defibrated post-consumer paper and garment waste

Principal Investigator

SEKI Shunichi(SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION)

Plastic depends on underground resources. In Japan, a large percentage of plastic is thermally recycled.
Bio/recycled plastics face challenges in terms of cost and mechanical performance.
Epson’s Dry Fiber Technology - which defibrates used paper and recycles it into new paper without the use of water - is being applied to create value-added products to promote a plastic-free society.

Promoting the transition to a circular economy by developing composite materials that utilize currently underused fibers, and the molding technology necessary to process said composite materials

Fiber-reinforced composite with all of the following properties:
elastic modulus > 2 GPa
impact strength > 10 kJ/m2
melt-flow properties compatible with current injection molding manufacturing for large parts
Integrate the developed composite material into our products

Composite material made from post-industrial textile waste and degraded recycled polypropylene
Composite material consisting of bio-plastic binder and a high concentration of cellulose fiber filler having both high elastic modulus and high impact resistance
Optimizing dry-process-defibrated fibers to achieve high-filler-concentration composites with good formability

Development of 3D-imaging technology to visualize cellulose fibers in composite materials
- Small density difference between fibers and plastic stymies determination of the structure of dispersed fiber network
- Use of coherent x-rays to image composite materials with sub-micrometer resolution
- Predict mechanical and melt flow properties from fiber size, morphology, and dispersion
Development of chemical analysis technology for fiber/plastic interface
- Existing high-luminance facilities insufficient to observe organic-organic interfaces
- Use low-energy, high-luminance x-rays to visualize interface static and dynamic state with few-nanometer resolution
- Correlate observed interface structure with impact strength and fiber-pull-out characteristics to probe composites’ failure mechanism, use mechanism for simultaneous optimization of composite modulus and impact strength

Construct database linking material processing and evaluation data to drive material development
Develop multi-simulation for the integrated investigation of the correlation between composition, fiber dispersion, mechanical properties, and formability