The research within Treesearch
Within Treesearch, basic research is carried out that is aiming at getting deeper understanding and knowledge that can be the foundation for the materials of the future. The research is carried out within four thematic research areas, where individual projects can cover one or more of the areas.
Below you can read more about the four theme areas. If you want to know more about the research and the associated researchers, you can follow the links in the menu under research.
1. Wood and wood components – structure and modification
Future industrial processes will extract and process more components from wood today’s bulk processes. The necessary process developments can utilize new knowledge of the structure of wood at the molecular level generated through fundamental research, e.g. the major advances in knowledge that have been made in the area of wood formation and biosynthesis, where cellulose fibrils are formed first, followed by infiltration with hemicellulose and lignification. Together with improved analytical methods giving better knowledge of how the various components are distributed in the wood fibre, the knowledge of the structure of wood and wood components is a prerequisite for the development of new methods for extracting wood components as well as new modification methods for wood, bark, wood fibre, cellulose, lignin, hemicellulose, etc.
2. The biorefinery for materials
The biorefinery for materials and chemical systems refers to the processes for extracting solid or liquid components for material applications. Examples of components in wood are lignin, hemicelluloses (as components in solution), nanocellulose, cellulose fibres and lignin particles (in solid form). Research in this area needs to be linked to knowledge of how these components are structured (molecular structure), their reactivity and how they are distributed in the cell wall of the wood fibre.
The term chemical system refers to liquid material systems and gels from modified wood components. In order to achieve a successful overall biorefinery process, mechanical, thermal, chemical and enzymatic processes can be combined.
3. Fabrication of material systems
The concept fabrication of material systems refers to the combination or forming of mono- or multicomponent engineering materials with designed material structure, specific composition and geometric shapes. This includes the application of liquid materials systems in the form of solutions, colloids and suspensions.
Within this theme, activities will be focused on wet and dry processes for fabrication of materials. This includes both processes for new materials as well as radical process improvements of processes for existing materials, such as specific types of packaging materials. The perhaps most important technical challenge to address is the competition from plastic materials in terms of process speed and the possibility to make products with complex geometry.
4. New material concepts – material design and properties
The technical aim of New material concepts is to contribute to the development of new engineering materials that will expand the areas of application for wood-based materials. When starting out with new components, such as e.g. fibres, nanocellulose, lignin or hemicellulose, this development will be facilitated through research-generated knowledge, since it will provide necessary data on material properties and technical experience.
The development of material concepts will be driven by the property related goals such as such as improved mechanical properties, barrier properties, moisture resistance or new features (optical transparency, chemical stability, electrical, magnetic, biochemical, etc.). Scientific questions will be related to the principles for design of these new material concepts. This requires research to understand how the material structure is designed to achieve radically improved properties and new functionality.
