The project ran between November 2021 and August 2022.
Global air purification market is very large and is expected to grow to about USD 51.4 billion by 2032 from the current size of USD 12.7 billion (2021). Air purification in both building ventilation and mining industry is a growing market worldwide, however, traditional filters are mainly petroleum-based polymers and glass fibres made.
In this project, Racoon Miljöfilter, Racoon, an innovative SME, together with RISE explored selected biomass residue as the base material for their coating, replacing the petroleum-based materials that are currently used. The aim was to increase the ‘value proposition’ of bio-mass residue, moving up from merely a ‘sustainable alternative’ to ‘high-value and multifunctional alternative.
We have formulated the biomass into a foam that after drying resembled the existing polyurethane filter. This material was characterized using standard methods for filter materials and its performance was tested in real wheel loader machines and compared to present air filters. The results show that the resulted bio-based material structure is comparable to current petroleum-based filter. On top of that we have put together the future value chain of scaling up this process.
Participants
Racoon Miljöfilter AB och RISE Reaserch Institute of Sweden AB.
Budget
The project’s total budget was 1 MSEK.
Read about Biomass recycled air filters – BioReFil – step 2.