Green nanocomposites from forest waste

Financining

Thunholms och Wallenbergs stiftelse

Project description

The extraction of biommass from forests to produce paper, furniture and energy generates a large amount of forest residues (branches, tops and un-merchantable wood). In Sweden, logging residues, lop and top and slash from final fellings constitutes the largest share (>71%) of these wastes. This proposal intends to isolate and prepare nanofibers from logging residues and, demonstrate and validate the use of them as reinforcing agents suitable to be applied in composites. The aim of the Project is to develop green nanocomposites based on cellulosic nanofibres from forestry biomass wastes as an alternative to the synthetic materials in the packaging sector. This research will contribute to define a sustainable way to manage the forest residues, using the logging residues as raw materials to produce economic and environmentally-friendly novel products.

A suitable green nanocomposite should be able to close its cycle life without any environmental hazard from its origin to its disposal. Therefore, the current challenge of this Project is: a) studying and developing an efficient, clean and sustainable methodology to achieve the isolation of the main structural polymers from the forest residues (cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin) and the extraction of the cellulosic nanofibres; b) developing competitive nanocomposites to be applied in the packaging sector and; c) monitoring and controlling the degradation processes of these nanocomposites during their service life and their disposal to ensure both, their competitivity and degradability under different conditions and ambient.

Keywords: Forest, biomass wastes, cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, nanofibres, nanocomposites, service life, degradation processes, packaging sector