Patrick Morris grew up in a pottery studio in New Zealand, and from an early age was actively involved in production. Fascinated by malleable materials, his own research into materials development began with atmospheric carbon absorbed by trees and removed as a waste stream of the paper industry in volumes of millions of tons per year. Patrick resolved to address this; “here was an abundant resource of what is essentially atmospheric carbon and all of it going straight back into the atmosphere, either as methane released by cows when used in cattle feed, or directly as CO2 when burnt as low-cost fuel. I wanted to find a better use for it.”
With further research and experimentation, Patrick found that certain elements of this paper waste could be 3D printed and heat treated, leaving him with a 3D Carbon article. In 2015 Patrick founded Carbon Forest Products, to develop a material using a new 3D Printed Carbon material manufactured from paper waste compositions to create new forms of thermal management, battery components and even regenerative biomedical implants such as bone scaffolds. Their raw materials are sourced from forestry feedstock and have significantly lower carbon impacts than the copper, aluminium and titanium materials they will displace.