Home compostable powder as substitute for PFAS and plastic-based barriers in food packaging

Important results from the project

The goal of the project was to produce a powder from OrganoClick´s water-based formulations that can today be used as water and fat barriers in home-compostable and recyclable food packaging. The purpose of the project was that the powder could be used to create a water and fat barrier in molded food packaging. After the powder could have been successfully produced, several tests were performed by applying it in a lab scale to fibrous material to simulate a food package. Based on how the material was added, different degrees of water and oil barrier were achieved.

Expected long term effects

The desired effects of the project were to replace (1) paper-based products containing fluorinated substances, (2) laminated paper products, (3) a part of the market in plastic packaging as the trend is very clear towards moving away from plastic that is not home-compostable at all, (4) new technology for the manufacture of 3D shaped cellulose-based packaging. The powder that was produced was tested against, above all, replacing laminated paper products with good results. One of the main insights is that depending on how the powder is added, there will be different types of barrier.

Approach and implementation

Layout: 1 - Requirements 2 - Formulation development 3 - Lab scale production of 4 - Production test in wet process 5 - Production test in dry process 6 - Evaluation hypothesis. The whole project has run very well after a clear timeline had been created with monthly reconciliations for all partners. In the middle of the project, we could see that we needed to do another drying that we did not include in the planning, which meant that we asked for an extension of one month of the project. The last drying allowed us to complete the project and get the results we felt we needed.