- Efforts to achieve NEC's environmental business vision
- A world first: New technology to eliminate the need for standby power in ICT equipment
- Plastic Made from Straw and Nut Shells
- Obayashi Corporation
- A bioplastic with a biomass ratio of more than 75%
- Optimizing Power and Space with ECO CENTER
- Observing Greenhouse Gases Around the Earth from Space
- Monitoring the forests from space
- High-Performance Workplaces
- e-Learning
Plastic Made from Straw and Nut Shells
The earth yields a massive quantity of resources, but some of them are not being used effectively. Straw and nut shells are prime examples. Using these all-natural, non-edible plant resources, NEC has developed a new bioplastic the first in the world, which realizes both a high plant composition ratio and a level of durability suitable for electronics equipment.
Improving the practical characteristics and expanding the use of bioplastics
Our daily lives rely heavily on oil resources.
Yet in recent years new technologies have been developed one after another in connection with the curbing of fossil resource depletion and CO2 emissions, considered to be a major contributor to global warming. One such field is bioplastics, in which plastics are made from materials that are plant-based in origin.
Bioplastic, unlike petroleum-based plastics, is produced from renewable plants and is gaining a reputation as a next generation material that boasts a minimal environmental impact. It has been primarily used in stationery and kitchen products, and other household goods. The strength and heat resistance of bioplastics could not reach a level suitable for use in durable electronics and automobiles.
However, recently, there has been rapid progress toward improving the practical characteristics of bioplastics and expanding the use of them in this area which had been considered difficult. For many years...ratio of over 75% in components excluding inorganic material—far greater than that of existing bioplastics—and which furthermore combines a high flame retardancy, strength and heat resistance suitable for use in electronics. From the beginning of 2010, NEC began to use it in personal computers for business use and plans to release other products using the bioplastic.
Can we really make plastics from non-edible plants?
Still, challenges remained.
This flame-retarding bioplastic primarily uses starches collected from cereal grains used for livestock feed such as corn that is old and not for human consumption. Although its usage does not contribute to a food crisis at present, the future possibility of food shortages has raised the issue of finding a non-edible plant resource with a stable supply. Therefore, the development of a new bioplastic produced from non-edible plant-based materials with a stable supply was needed.
How did NEC proceed with research and development to create a new bioplastic that is produced by the reacting and bonding of non-edible plant components and that can achieve the main characteristics required by its use in electronics equipment? What is the one plant used to bring to the bioplastic a high level of durability including strength, heat resistance and water resistance? How did NEC embark upon a new frontier in bioplastics?
The photograph to the left is rice straw, a familiar example of a non-edible plant resource suitable for the production of bioplastic. Inside the white container is the main raw material (cellulose acetate) produced by modifying cellulose extracted from the rice straw or other similar plant with acetic acid to enhance the chemical reactivity of cellulose. The two containers on the right of the photograph contain the material used to give the bioplastic a thermoplasticity and high durability: a shell from a certain well-known plant, and that shell's liquid extract. The molded resin pieces arranged in the middle of the photograph are the bioplastic made with non-edible materials, newly developed by NEC.
