Innomost has recycled birch bark from the forest industry into a barrier material for fibre-based packaging, functional coatings and adhesives – said to protect products against moisture, grease and oxygen.
Suberin is a naturally occurring material found in plant cell walls. Birch bark uses suberin to protect the tree from moisture, oils, and environmental stress.
Innomost sources birch bark from an existing side stream of the Nordic forest industry, then refines it into a mixture of biobased compounds for use in packaging materials, packaging materials, adhesives, and other industrial applications.
The final product, marketed as Suberinno Suberin, can reportedly be used as the principal functional component in selected coating systems – or else combined with organic and inorganic materials – in fibre-based packaging for food, non-food, and dry products.
Innomost believes that this versatility will help paper and board manufacturers, coating developers, and manufacturers replace the conventional, fossil-based barrier components used in barrier coatings – allowing customers to adjust film formation, barrier performance, and processing properties to suit the needs of their packaging applications.
“Suberinno Suberin is particularly interesting because it can contribute to coating formulations with moisture, grease, and oxygen-barrier properties in the same material,” explains Innomost CEO Niko Mellanen. “It can be used as a principal functional component in selected systems or combined with other coating materials to achieve the required performance.”
The solution is also described as hydrophobic and is expected to maintain durability in adhesion and coating applications.
“Replacing fossil-based barrier materials requires more than renewable raw materials,” says Dr. Sami Selkälä, founder and CTO of Innomost. “The coating must provide the functionality required by the packaging application and work with different substrates and formulation systems.”
Suberin is hoped to meet growing demand for renewable coatings and help customers improve the recyclability of their packaging – especially as the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation sets requirement for packaging design, composition and waste management.
Currently, Innomost produces Suberinno Suberin at its facility in Kokkola, Finland. The company plans to build an industrial plant and scale production within the next two to three years.
In the meantime, Innomost is working with industry partners to evaluate Suberinno Suberin’s effectiveness in different coating and packaging systems.
In similar news, the University of Oulu is converting suberin into coating materials in a collaboration with UPM and Metsä Board. These coatings are set to be used in fibre-based packaging materials, and the coated materials are currently being analyzed to better understand their properties and performance in different applications.
Kelpi has also announced that its seaweed-based biomaterial coating was approved for use in food-contact applications by the US Food and Drug Administration. This will allow the material to be used on paper and board packaging for food, cosmetics, and personal care products sold in the United States.
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