One of the key challenges for the
industrial translation of cellulose
nanofiber (CNF) materials is appropriate characterization and evaluation
of product quality. Characterization of CNF properties is difficult
because direct nanofiber assessment is largely unreliable and unscalable,
while indirect characterization is often inaccurate and unable to
be generalized across different biomass sources, processing routes,
and final product or component formats. In addition, quality is an
ambiguous term that is difficult to define, encompassing material
performance, processing sustainability, and any aspects impacting
economic viability of industrial production, dependent on the application
in question. Using existing data on CNF produced from sorghum biomass,
we explored the development of versatile statistical methodologies
as a framework to investigate quality and sustainability, including:
(a) a novel visualization tool for the evaluationof biomass processing
sustainability (Processing Sustainability Triangle); (b) correlation
analysis of biomass chemical composition with metrics relating to
processing sustainability and nanopaper performance; and (c) an application-tunable
Quality Ranking methodology based on a user-defined definition, as
built through structural equation modeling. Versatility of the framework
allows researchers and technologists to map the statistical methodology
onto their experimental system of interest, enhancing data analysis
through visualization. Ultimately,more sophisticated techniques for
evaluation of product quality and processing sustainability will assist
researchers to elucidate relationships in biomass-derived materialperformance
and advance the industrial translation of CNF products.
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