New materials save the environment

New environmentally friendly materials offer Finnish industry significant new opportunities. In terms of packaging materials, the potential is in the range of billions of euros...

The VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed several eco-friendly and innovative composite fibre materials that are based on pulp fibre, sawdust, flax, hemp, reed canarygrass, and fibre from the surface layer of peat, to name a few.

— We have become experts in understanding these materials and how to process them. In many projects, we have reached the finish line, meaning we have attained essentially functional materials that can be applied to consumer products, says Kirsi Immonen, a Research Scientist at VTT.

— Fibre-based packaging materials include both transparent paper and modifiable board. These materials have reached the pilot phase and their potential has been examined by commercial actors, says Research Professor Ali Harlin.

Booming demand

Roughly five per cent of oil consumption today goes towards the manufacture of plastics, and plastics account for some 40 per cent of packaging. Thanks to the method developed by VTT, the oil used in the manufacture of plastic packages is replaced with renewable raw materials.

— Consumers don’t see the difference, but it reduces the carbon footprint. Carbon dioxide emissions from bio-based plastics can be as much as 80 per cent smaller than emissions from oil-based plastics, but in practice the figure is slightly more conservative, Harlin says.

Although most oil-based materials can be replaced with bio-based materials, the latter still releases some emissions during the manufacturing process. The volume of emissions from bio-based materials, however, is often half that of oil-based materials. The shift to promoting bio-based materials should also be encouraged through legislation.

— Bio-based plastics so far make up only about half a per cent of all plastics, but annual production and demand are growing strongly at a rate of approximately 25 per cent, explains Immonen.

Targeting new markets

Harlin believes that the new materials will offer Finnish industry significant opportunities through re-orientation.

— The manufacture of fibre packages is sufficiently close to paper and board manufacturing technology, so it can be adopted quickly. In terms of packaging materials, we’re talking about potential in the range of billions of euros annually, Harlin points out.

Immonen believes Finland’s plastic products industry is very agile and can thus take control of new types of material at a very fast rate. New investments are not needed, as the materials can be processed using the existing plastic processing methods.

— It all hinges on suitable and well-marketed products targeted at environmentally aware consumers. New fibre composite materials can open up even substantial markets for Finnish companies, in the areas of both packaging and in the construction and transport vehicle industry.

Some examples can already be seen in, for instance, the composite materials used in new cars. Some of the Finnish products Immonen points to as examples are LunaComp Deck, an outdoor decking material made of 100-per-cent-recycled wood materials, UPM’s ProFi composite products made of recycled materials, the Flaxwood guitar, which contains bio-composite materials, and most recently, Puustelli’s Miinus kitchen concept based on natural fibre composites.

Source: http://www.goodnewsfinland.com, 7 March 2013