R&I Breakthroughs

As the world becomes increasingly concerned about climate change and the depletion of fossil fuels, the need for clean and sustainable energy has become more pressing. To address this challenge, the European Union funded the project CLARA (Chemical Looping gAsification foR sustainAble production of biofuels), which involved collaboration between 13 partners across Europe, including universities, […]

One of the challenges in fibre-based food and beverages packaging is the barrier layer needed to keep moisture and gases from entering and exiting the package. These packaging barriers need to meet many different strict demands to be competitive. Therefore, a novel biobased polymer, namely PEF (polyethylene furanoate) with a powerful combination of environmental features […]

Together with the growth of the world population, a cellulose gap appears due to the growing demand of fibre and the decreasing availability of cotton. It means that about one third of textile fibres used in 2030 would need to be cellulosic. Cotton can be replaced with man-made cellulose fibres or real cellulose-based fibre. Turning […]

Going beyond the common use of conventional fertilizer for plants, Professor Torgny Näsholm at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Umeå, Sweden, examined the role of amino acids in supplying the nitrogen required for the growth of forest trees. His studies showed that trees can absorb organic nitrogen from the soil, a breakthrough in […]