Cellulosic nanomaterials exhibit great potential in various applications due to their unique properties, abundant availability, and low production cost. Although cost effective to produce it is costly to ship, primarily due to the excess of water (>95 wt.%) in growth media necessary to produce the cellulosic nanomaterials. Therefore, a need has been identified by cellulosic material providers to develop energy-efficient, dewatering or drying of cellulosic nanomaterials, “as cellulosic nanomaterials are not economical to ship long distances while containing significant water content”. Moreover, the dewatered or dried cellulosic nanomaterials should be readily re-dispersed in water without any changes in its functional properties.

Faraday Technology in collaboration with AVAPCO, answer this need by developing an economical manufacturing method and apparatus for electrochemical dewatering of cellulosic nanomaterials including cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs). Specifically, our innovation is directed towards dewatering of CNCs and CNFs, not drying. AVAPCO has indicated that dewatering to 20-30 wt.% solids would be the end product for numerous applications such as cosmetics and paper processing. Using innovative reactor designs, we demonstrated the feasibility of a cost-effective, industrially viable, and energy efficient ElectroDewatering approach capable of generating 20 wt.% final solids, that was rehydrated under vortex and confirmed for re-dispersibility. Material properties (structure, particle size) were maintained by the dewatered cellulosic nanomaterials. Implementing sophisticated electric fields, we reduced energy use by 50% compared to conventional constant voltage approaches at similar or higher dewatering performance. Specifically, this talk will discuss the results of these advancements.

Acknowledgements: The financial support of DOE Contract No. DE-SC0018787 is acknowledged.