<br/>The Forest Products Laboratory has been producing cellulose nano-crystals (CNC) at pilot scale for over two years, using the 64% sulfuric acid process.  Where initial results appeared to be quite good and with uniformity between batches, additional experience resulted in several changes from the initial process operation, and recent feedback from customers is suggesting that uniformity in pulp supply and in the CNC produced may not be as consistent as thought.  The FPL has also been working to produce the TEMPO grade of Cellulose nano-fibril at pilot scale for two years.  This is not a particularly difficult chemical process, but some customer requirements required processing capabilities that required considerable evaluation before settling on a suitable method.  This effort also highlighted the difficulty in establishing larger scale process methods when limited to about 20 grams per batch at lab scale.   After much experimentation, progress has been made and this form of cellulose nanomaterial is now available as well.  This presentation will summarize the process of discovery and development for production of these two interesting materials at 400 liter scale. <br/>

Chemistry at 400 L: What it takes to prepare cellulose nanocryatals and the TEMPO grade of cellulose nanofibirls at pilot scale

251st National Meeting (2016)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.