Natural Fiber Welding, Inc. (NFW) is scaling disruptive technologies that produce high performance materials directly from plants. Presently, there is much focus on ‘sustainable’ materials and ‘circular economy’. For those that deeply understand consumer products that are made with synthetic components (e.g., polyester and polyurethane in shoes, clothes, furniture, auto interiors), it is well noted that there are few conventional technical options to solving the cascade of issues that prevent plastic-containing products from being holistically ‘sustainable’ and/or ‘circular’. Moreover, it is becoming quite clear after decades of large-scale investments that most biomaterials alternatives have severe limitations including that many ‘biotech’ materials that are often mixed with plastics and can thus never be truly ‘circular’ and/or biomaterials that do not perform at meaningful price points that govern large consumer markets.<br/><br/>NFW has taken a fundamentally new approach to making materials. NFW delivers never before possible technical materials while using all-natural inputs. NFW is launching materials that have ‘dual circularity’ in large consumer markets. That is complex biocomposites that can both be recycled and/or returned to the earth at the end of their useful lifetimes. Moreover, these novel biocomposites are produced from regeneratively sourced ingredients (e.g., food waste) and while using extremely efficient manufacturing technologies. This presentation will focus on several case studies of how NFW is producing technical materials and delivering production solutions that bring holistic sustainability and circularity into large consumer markets.

Natural fiber welding: Complex high-performance composites that displace plastics

ACS Spring 2022

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