ELIXANCE is a SME with a team of around 25 people which develops and produces colour and additive masterbatches and various compounds.
Colouring, improving physical and chemical properties of plastics and developing new materials are just some of the services ELIXANCE can offer to its customers. Passionate about colour and innovation in plastics, the ELIXANCE team offers solutions in a wide range of areas.
For several years ELIXANCE has been developing bioplastics using natural fillers and fibers (oyster and scallop shells, flax, hemp, etc.), mostly from local resources. The use of renewable resources and the research into innovative functions of polymers are two of ELIXANCE’S main focuses. The Research and Development department, with both its highly qualified human resources and its equipment dedicated to innovation, is able to develop new materials with specific properties for new markets.
ELIXANCE
Role in the project
ELIXANCE will be involved in the “biopolymer formulation, compounding and characterisation” work package [WP4]. More precisely, the compounding of new biomaterials will be done by ELIXANCE which will have to solve technological issues about micronisation, mixing and introduction of the raw material into the extruder. Compounding optimisation (extrusion parameters, equipment and process, addition of additives/charges) will also be an important technical challenge that ELIXANCE could have to overcome. The last step of this work package will consist in characterising the bio-based compounds in order to analyse the effect of additives/fillers/copolymers addition, chemical modification and processing on the processed material properties.
As the leader of one of the work packages [WP6], ELIXANCE will coordinate the “Product development for PHA-based materials”. One of the main purposes of this work package is to benchmark the fossil counterparts in order to use them as references for the development of bio-based high volume consumer products. Another main purpose will be to validate optimised processes for the production of 8 high-volume consumer products made of PHA-based materials. One of these products will be supplied by ELIXANCE: 3D printing filaments.
ELIXANCE will also be involved in the recycling et re-compound development as well as in the definition of the eco-design and life-cycle assessment of the NENU2PHAR product [WP8].