Opportunity: Development of bacterial cellulose fibers for flame-retardant and ablative applications

Legacy materials currently used for uniform flame-retardancy and ablative coatings are being phased out and are typically produced overseas, which is causing significant supply chain risk. This opportunity aims to take bacterially-sourced cellulose and functionalize it prior to wet spinning into fibers. We currently have a lab-scale spin line and are in the process of installing a pilot-scale wet spin line for scale-up of fiber production. With a suite of post-spinning material characterization tools (including TGA-DSC, FTIR, XRD, microscopy and tensile testing) we aim to correlate cellulose functionalization and spinning conditions to match the fiber properties of legacy fibers. Opportunities exist for designing components and systems needed to successfully operate both spin lines and exploring the chemistry within cellulose functionalization and wet-spinning.