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FPInnovations, Resolute, Performance BioFilaments win award for partnership

FPInnovations, Performance BioFilaments and Resolute Forest Products have won an innovation award in Quebec for their commercial facility project specializing in the production of cellulose filaments.

On Nov. 19, the companies won a Technology Partnership Award at the 30th Innovation Awards Gala of the Association pour le développement de la recherche et de l’innovation du Québec (ADRIQ) for their work on the forthcoming biomaterials plant at Resolute’s specialty papers mill in Kénogami, Quebec.

In a blog post, FPInnovations says it partnered with Resolute Forest Products to transfer knowledge of the technology, which was developed with contributions from industrial members, provincial governments and the Canadian government through the Canadian Forest Service’s Transformative Technologies Program.

Extracted from wood-pulp fibre, cellulose filaments have special properties that make them an excellent reinforcing agent for use in a range of application.

Cellulose filaments can be used as a reinforcing agent in paper products, in materials used in industrial sectors such as transportation, or as a rheological agent to modify the texture and behaviour of paint.

This is the second time that FPInnovations’ cellulose filament production technology has been commercialized – the other being by Kruger Biomaterials in a partnership established in 2013.

“FPInnovations is proud to have received such recognition from ADRIQ along with Resolute Forest Products and Performance BioFilaments,” says Jean Hamel, vice-president, industry and member relations at FPInnovations, in a statement.

“We share a common desire to promote the forest sector’s potential by working closely with the industry to deploy innovations that have a direct impact on its competitiveness and diversification.”

Commercial production is expected to begin in 2021 with up to 21 tons of cellulose filaments per day.