Materials Wood-based
Materials Wood-based plastic from Finland Forest-rich Finland has produced many innovations based on wood biomass. Now a novel wood-based bioplastic material has been developed by the Finnish technology company Woodly (Espoo, Finlad). The material – also named Woodly ® – is a clear, transparent, carbon-neutral plastic suitable for all conventional converting technologies and a whole variety of applications making it highly versatile. The main raw material of Woodly is cellulose. The chemical modification of the ingredients allows a thermoplastic polymer to be produced from the white, powdery, nonthermoplastic cellulose. The material is the first of its kind in the world. Woodly is supplied as shining glass-like granulates that resemble small pearls, yet Woodly can be processed with film blowing, cast film extrusion, extrusion coating and injection moulding, “which is not possible with other cellulosic materials,” as Martta Asikainen, CTO of Woodly told bioplastics MAGAZINE. Details on the modifications they make, were, however, not disclosed. Woodly performs well also in composites. Scalability is the key Woodly packaging or products can be massproduced with the existing production lines of plastic industry, unlike many other innovations that require large scale investments from manufacturers. It is easy for manufacturers, retailers, and brands to shift from conventional plastic packaging because they don’t need to change their existing machinery. The global breakthrough of Woodly packages is possible through cooperation with its partners – Wipak Group (Helsinki, Finland) and Amerplast (Tampere, Finland). Both companies produce plastic films and packaging and are globally renowned operators. The development of Woodly’s material began in 2011 and the company has manufactured packaging prototypes made of wood-based plastic for companies in the consumer goods sector. In 2019, the company ran several industrial-scale tests with pilot customers and is now in 2020 commercially ready. The first commercial applications will be various types of film packages developed for the needs of specific brand owners and will enter market before Summer 2020. Woodly is safe to use for food packaging and complies with the EU regulations. One of the products, that Woodly and Wipak Group have developed in partnership, is the world’s first wood-based modified atmosphere packaging ideal for perishable foods. Focus on recyclability The key in the plastics packaging market is to develop a recyclable biobased packaging which is easy to collect and recycle in the future. Woodly answers these expectations very well and has been designed to be recyclable with the processes used for mechanical plastics recycling. In recycling tests, the material’s quality and mechanical properties remain for at least 5 cycles of mechanical recycling. However, if Woodly eventually ends up in mixed waste for incineration, the energy recovered from Woodly products yields 70 % less fossil-based carbon dioxide than burning traditional plastics. Woodly is not biodegradable or compostable and is not targeting those markets. Sustainable solutions Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer on Earth. It is already omnipresent as the main component of plant cells and key building block for many materials like textiles and paper - and now also to create plastic. For biomaterials to replace fossil ones, they must be sustainably and responsibly sourced from the beginning. Woodly has chosen to use only FSC certified wood. This means that the forests are managed according to international ecological and ethical standards. Currently, the biocontent of Woodly is 40- 60 % and the biocontent has been confirmed in tests by TÜV Austria. Woodly has carried out a life-cycle assessment in accordance with ISO14044 and ISO14040 standards made by third party AFRY (former Pöyry) from Stockholm, Sweden, and the material was confirmed to be carbonneutral. “When looking at impact categories such as global warming potential, Woodly has a negative GWP. During the growth phase of the biobased components of Woodly, they have absorbed more CO 2 from the atmosphere than the production of Woodly and of the fossil components causes emissions,” as Martta explained. The innovation continues and the technical team of Woodly is constantly working to further improve the biobased content towards 100 % and further improvements in the carbon footprint are planned. MT www.woodly.com 16 bioplastics MAGAZINE [02/20] Vol. 15
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