Kasvibiomassan hiili uusiutuviksi materiaaleiksi (HUUMA)

In the forest industry, paper production has decreased as information technology has developed, and the sector needs new products with a higher degree of processing. The volume of the forest industry cannot be increased because the logging rate of Finnish forests is already at its maximum, but it is possible to increase the degree of processing and added value of forest industry products, for example by processing cellulose and lignin into bioplastic products and packaging materials.



Forest industry wastewater, agricultural waste, and other possible organic waste fractions contain a considerable amount of, for example, sugar and sugar polymer containing nutrients, such as lignocellulose, hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin, and their degradation products. A need has been identified for their utilization, and one good opportunity for this is the production of biodegradable/compostable plastic raw materials, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), in bioreactors. Similarly, organic waste from municipal waste management can be used as nutrients for the production of PHA in bioreactors.



The project develops a PHA production process that utilizes waste materials from the agricultural and forestry sectors as well as biowaste. The project focuses on testing and developing the processability of the produced bioplastics under laboratory conditions. The practical work consists of several task sets, including the collection of latest data related to the topic, the design and implementation of processing experiments, and the determination of the properties of the produced plastic material. In addition, granulate processing experiments are carried out, as well as the assessment of the suitability of the materials, and the definition of the composition for different product applications.