25.11.2011

Cellulose to be the raw material of the future

FiDiPro Professor Thomas Heinze is developing chemical methods with which a greater number of the characteristics of cellulose can be transferred into the products made from it.

German born Professor Thomas Heinze is convinced that in the future cellulose will be of great significance to industry.

“We must find new alternatives for oil. Cellulose is the best of all renewable raw materials. As it is inedible its use is non-controversial, unlike that of raw materials such as starch, when raw materials are divided for use as nutrition or for production of inedible consumer goods," Professor Heinz points out.

For example yoghurt cartons could already be produced from cellulose. The only issue standing in the way of the use of renewable raw materials is the cost.

The German professor is working on a research project at Åbo Akademi University in Turku. The objective of the project is to develop functional material applications for cellulose and other natural polymers.

Professor Heinze mentions dyeing as an example. A product’s colours can be directly produced from a raw material, when the material’s structure is chemically altered.

"This means that fewer individual colourants are required for production of the product, a detail that is very important from an environmental standpoint," mentions Professor Heinz.

Another example of the possibilities afforded by cellulose is packaging paper used to protect food stuff from micro-organisms and thus from spoiling. The cosmetics industry can also utilise particles produced from cellulose. Valuable vitamins remain in moisturisers for longer when protective particles are added to the cream.

FiDiPro enables tangible cooperation

The American Chemical Society’s Cellulose and Renewable Materials Division granted the 2010 Anselme Payne Award to Professor Heinze. The prestigious award will be used to support development work for the chemical technology for cellulose. Pedro Fardim, the professor heading the research project at Åbo Akademi University, was one of several people to recommend Professor Heinze for the award. The FiDiPro research was also one of the criteria named as to why Professor Heinze receiving the award.

The Tekes funded four year Polysaccharide-Based Biomaterials Project will continue to the end of 2013. Professor Heinze has tenure as a professor at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena in Germany. He works at Åbo Akademi University for a week each month.

According Heinze, the FiDiPro research project is especially valuable as it enables tangible cooperation.

“Telephone and video conferences or email could never replace personal interaction and face-to-face discussions.”

He is also grateful for the project’s flexibility. Although Tekes funding is only intended for research work carried out in Finland, Professor Heinze has been able to utilise the expertise of his home university in the project.

Professor Heinze feels that close cooperation between Turku and Jena has enriched the research.
“Although the ways in which we are accustomed to working in Germany and Finland are generally similar, the methods differ. The different measurement and analysis methods complement one another very well.”

Text: Anna Kauppi

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