What range of possibilities do the properties of walnut shells offer to achieve hard or flexible composite materials?

Walnuts are delicious, healthy, have a deeply rooted history and are becoming increasingly popular again, but what about their shells? Their hard yet light material could be of use, but instead they disappear in the trash. However, at the Böllersen Walnussmeisterei, which is dedicated to the replanting of walnut trees in Brandenburg and has its own cracking machine, walnut shells are collected, but only to be used as firewood.

For me, the main task was to develop a new, sustainable material from walnut shells. On the one hand, to give this „worthless“ part of the walnut a value after all, and on the other hand out of interest in its actual potential. So they were ground to different finenesses and processed with different binders into flat composite materials. The result is a wide variation in hardness levels, surface structures and looks.

Tags

biodesign
circular economy
inspired nature
material innovation
renewable ressources
waste as ressource

Supervisor(s)

Prof. Dr. Zane Berzina, Prof. Barbara Schmidt, Prof. Steffen Schuhmann, Prof. Dr. Lucy Norris, Andreas Kallfelz, Mina Mahouti

Collaborator(s)

Walnussmeisterei Böllersen, Hochschule für Nachhaltige Entwicklung Eberswalde