WAGENINGEN, NETHERLANDS (June 27, 1:25 p.m. ET) — Koninklijke Co"peratie Cosun U.A. (Royal Cosun), a consortium of Dutch sugar beet growers, announced plans to commercialize a composite based on carrot waste and developed by Scottish science company Cellucomp Ltd., at a bioplastics conference in the Netherlands last week.
At the Biobased Based Materials Symposium, held June 21 in Wageningen, Royal Cosun spokesman Bart van Ingen outlined development plans for Curran, a cellulose material extracted from carrot waste. The extracted cellulose can be combined with a variety of resins to create biocomposite materials.
“Although we are still doing research into the material's properties, advantages we have seen so far include stiffness, strength, toughness and light weight,” said van Ingen.
At the conference, van Ingen showed two successful applications; a fishing rod and a longboard.
CelluComp first used the material, along with carbon fiber, to create a fishing rod. The Reactor rod combines the stiffness of carbon fiber with the lighter weight and improved impact strength of Curran. The company also used Curran sheets to create a longboard designed by Alex Luxat from Wefunk.
The cellulose content of the material ranges from 50 to 90 percent, depending on the application, said van Ingen.
The Curran material, which is usually mixed with resins such as epoxy, polyurethane and polyester, is currently being produced in a pilot plant, will be commercialized in the fourth quarter of this year.
