Functional renewable materials from wood hydrolysate

Research leaders

Prof. Ann-Christine Albertsson
Prof. Ulrica Edlund

Project information

During the last few years, the interest in renewable and biodegradable materials has increased tremendously throughout the global community. The global market for renewable and biodegradable materials is anticipated to increase immensely in the near future following the rising societal awareness of the climate situation and the expected results of a continued consumer mentality.

This project aims at the use of non-edible renewable resources for the development of functional materials. More specifically, barrier films, wrappings, bags, disposable containers and coatings for packaging are targeted and highly interesting applications being imperative and extensively used devices in our modern way-of-life. Waste side streams in pulping mills are used for the isolation of wood hydrolysates from which upgraded dry polysaccharide-rich material is refined and used for product development. Chemical modification of the upgraded macromolecules is also done to present new systems and to induce new properties.