Upgrading of cellulose fibers into porous materials

ended

The major challenge to reduce consequences of climate change, microplastic pollution and raw material shortages is to convert our economic system. We need to replace fossil-based resources by renewable ones, replace persistent materials by biodegradables while developing and employing environmentally friendly processing technologies to create safe products with minimum impact on the environment. A real impact on economy, society and ecology is only generated if the materials, processes and products to be replaced are in large scale. In BreadCell, we develop a radically new technology to produce porous lightweight low-density materials which are currently used in large scale industries and mainly consist of synthetic non-degradable polymers. BreadCell technology comprises a foaming process to create products relying on existing and new raw materials from pulping (cellulose, xylan), and to convert them to high value, lightweight, energy-absorbing and load-transferring composites such as in sports and safety components of cars. The whole process chain will be guided by safe-by-design principles to ensure the production of sustainable and inherently safe products. Today, the innovation capacity of European scientists and industry in the area of renewable materials makes them already the leading global players in the field. We will provide a scalable technology that will further support the European technological leadership in the area by cross-fertilization of different fields (pulp and paper, biotechnology, polymer technology, toxicity) while addressing needs of future materials.