The project ran between May and November 2019.

The project aimed to develop superabsorbents from bio-based materials to mainly be used in food pads and healthcare markets. The idea is to replace polymeric absorbents from fossil sources.

Cellulosic materials were treated in different ways trying to tune the pore structure and therefore its absorption. Furthermore, within the project the feasibility of the process to produce the different materials and the cost were evaluated.

It was found that the absorption capacity of cellulose can be tuned to surpass that of polymeric absorbents, but this is highly dependent on the method used to dry the material. Although the price of the cellulose material used during the project is still high, there is continuous research trying to decrease its cost of production. Despite this disadvantage it is possible to produce cheaper food pads since the amount of the material needed to absorb the same amount of liquid is half of the corresponding commercial pads. This also saves cost during transportation.

Participants

Cellcomb and RISE.

Budget

The project’s budget was 1 000 000 SEK.