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Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Lab breakthrough with OrganoClick’s sustainable barrier within a BioInnovation project for PulPac’s Dry Molded Fiber technology

by Ann Dynehäll

Lab breakthrough with OrganoClick’s sustainable barrier within a BioInnovation project for PulPac’s Dry Molded Fiber technology

image received via email

Barrier testing at PulPac Tech Center. Image: Emelie Andersson

Earlier this year a consortium consisting of Pulpac, Nordic barrier coating and OrganoClick was granted financial support for barrier development and hypothesis testing within the Swedish strategic innovation program BioInnovation financed by the Swedish innovation agency Vinnova. The goal of the project is to develop radically new biobased and biodegradable materials and evaluate application methods that enable the integration of more environmentally friendly water (hydro-) and/or grease (oleophobic) resistant barriers in dry molded processes (Dry Molded Fiber).

OrganoClick’s role in the consortium is to develop and supply the biobased and biodegradable barrier coating material. Nordic barrier coating uses the barrier material supplied by OrganoClick in their production of nonwoven materials that finally is used in PulPac’s process for producing dry molded fiber packaging.

“This is a lab level breakthrough with a great potential to drive the uptake of Dry Molded Fiber in the most challenging packaging applications and increasing efficiency even more. Next is further industrial development and validation in the face of a promising commercial upscaling for sustainable barriers,” comments Sebastian Roos, Chief Technology Officer at PulPac AB

“OrganoClick’s multifaceted approach when developing new products starts in looking at the nature. By mimicking living plants and fruits own chemistry, OrganoClick has developed fiber modification technologies that enables functionalization of most fiber-based products. The potential markets now enabled in packaging and single-use products with our new water and grease resistance barrier materials for Dry Molded Fiber by PulPac are enormous and we are very excited about the next steps,” comments Dan Blomstrand, VP Biocomposites at OrganoClick AB

PulPac, OrganoClick and Nordic Barrier Coating have the last couple of months conducted extensive tests on the sustainable barrier solutions with new application methods and materials that show very high potential for biodegradable and food-grade solutions for more complex applications.

“Our work with combining materials and new chemistry from OrganoClick for Dry Molded Fiber is very exciting and we are proud of the generated breakthrough results. We are now thinking about future infrastructure and industrial development to commercially validate the solutions discovered, and to cater to DMF’s global uptake,” comments Urban Winberg, CEO at Nordic Barrier Coating AB

The tested materials also display an interesting potential to increase efficiency in the production and simplify handling of chemicals involved.

 

Media contacts: 
Sebastian Roos, CTO PulPac, Sebastian.roos@pulpac.com
Urban Winberg, VD NBC, urban.winberg@nbcab.se
Mårten Hellberg, CEO Organoclick, marten.hellberg@organoclick.com

 

About PulPac
PulPac provides the packaging industry with a groundbreaking manufacturing technology for low-cost, high-performance fiber-based packaging and single-use products. By pioneering the technology of cellulose molding PulPac enables their customers to replace single-use plastics with a sustainable and cost competitive alternative globally. www.pulpac.com

About Dry Molded Fiber
Dry Molded Fiber, invented and patented by PulPac, is a manufacturing technology designed for the circular economy – using renewable pulp and cellulose resources to produce low cost, high performance, fiber-based packaging, and single-use products. Dry Molded Fiber gives up to 80-90% lower CO2 footprint at similar cost as plastic. It is up to ten times as efficient as conventional fiber molding invented over 100 years ago. The dry process also saves massive amounts of valuable water resources. In addition, energy savings are significant - as the molded products need no drying.

About Nordic Barrier Coating
Nordic Barrier Coating AB manufactures and offers innovative barrier and packaging solutions for maximum functionality. Specialised on extrusion on paper, plastic and non-woven. With many years of experience from the paper, extrusion and conversion industries, we possess cutting-edge expertise in the field. www.nbcab.se

About OrganoClick
OrganoClick AB (publ) is a public Swedish cleantech company listed on Nasdaq First North Growth Market. The company develops, produces and markets functional materials based on environmentally friendly fiber chemistry. Examples of products that are marketed by OrganoClick are the durable water repellent technology for textiles OrganoTex®, the biocomposite material OrganoComp®, surface treatment and maintenance products for villa and property owners under the brand BIOkleen®, biobased binder under the trade name OC-BioBinder™ and the flame and rotresistant timber OrganoWood® (through the joint-venture OrganoWood AB). OrganoClick was founded in 2006 as a commercial spin-off company based on research performed at Stockholm University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences within environmentally friendly fiber chemistry. www.organoclick.com