BIOCARBON 3D

To be part of the climate change solution by creating plastics that are carbon negative, non-toxic and biodegradable, with engineered grade quality.

A Canadian bioplastic company, Advanced BioCarbon 3D (ABC3D), has developed wood-based bioplastic materials for use in 3D printing.
Founded in 2016, ABC3D was listed among the top five hundred deep tech start-ups around the world by Hello Tomorrow, a French tech accelerator.

The mission of ABC3D is to develop sustainable carbon-free plastics for 3D printing to alleviate the deteriorating environmental situation.
Though bioplastics are available in the industry, ABC3D’s ultimate goal is to make environmentally sustainable bioplastics for engineering application. The company boasts that their product is superior to other bioplastics made from renewable resourcesand is non-flammable and moisture resistant. ABC3D’s bioplastic filament is made from waste wood, therefore, the company is not in competition with the forestry companies. In fact, the wood that is used by ABC3D comes from poplar (or cottonwood)trees which are cut down during wood collection by forestry companies. And since there is no market for poplar trees they are left in the forest.

3D printing filaments made by ABC3D are a mixture of 60% plastic and 40% wood blended using ABC3D’sproprietary method in which resin is extracted from the waste wood. And the leftover wood is turned into a polymer. The resin is then added back to the plastic and this gives the material its heat resistant and moisture resistant properties.
Klassen explained the process, “The process usesgreen chemistry and starts with wood chips from the forest industry that are mixed with a solvent and put through a series of pressurized heating and cooling phases to extract the resin from the wood chips. All solvent from the manufacturing process is put back into the system to be reused again.”
The biomaterial was developed with the help of a$300,000 joint grant awarded to ABC3D and Selkirk College by a government-backed innovation cluster, Innovate BC.
ABC3D’s materials are currently being tested at the Metallurgical Industrial Development Acceleration and Studies (MIDAS) fab lab in Trail.