Improved uniformity of the fibers liberated in the kraft pulp digester
This project sets out to elucidate mass transport characteristics during delignification of wood chips as a means of understanding and controlling non-uniform delignification effects, associated to low efficiency and poor property control in the current pulping processes. To obtain information on local variations of delignification effect in a wood chip, the treated chips will be […]
Novel gels based on polysaccharides and polyphenols
This project will develop a new generation of functional hydrogels using cell wall polysaccharides and polyphenols from plant side streams, combining the material properties of the polysaccharides and the antioxidant properties of polyphenols. This project contributes to a circular biomass utilisation exploiting abundant by-products from agricultural production.
Hemicelluloses for fibre enzymatic modification
Our project focuses on hemicelluloses, as they play an important role within lignocellulosic biomass, interlocking cellulose microfibrils, and lignin. Hemicelluloses affect the mechanical properties of cellulose fiber surfaces by creating rigid and flexible domains. The vision of the project is to unlock the full potential of hemicelluloses in wood and open the way for a […]
In-situ polymerization of functional polymers within the fiber cell wall
In this project, the fiber wall is modified to enable diffusion of functional monomers and subsequent polymerization and crosslinking within the wet-fiber wall resulting in a stiff and elastic fiber-composite. The fibers are modified in a fully biobased system and the end material is biocompatible and degradable.
Enzymatic engineering of hemicellulose hydrogels
In this project we will engineer hemicellulose hydrogels using a wide range of enzymes, from oxidative laccases that introduce crosslinking to specific hydrolases that cleave selectively side chains from the hemicelluloses. We expect that the enzymatic treatments will modulate the network interactions in the hydrogels and the rheological properties. We will investigate the morphology and […]
Wood modification towards hierarchical catalyst
Electrocatalytic reaction is a green technology for sustainable energy conversion, materials design, environment remediation, and green chemistry, where the role of catalyst is essential. Hierarchical structures combining multi-scale pores are favorable due to combined high specific surface area, mass diffusion in the structure and accessibility to the surface. In nature, biological materials are much more […]
Förhorning av träfibrer
Projektet går ut på att genom experimentella studier bygga upp en kunskap kring förhorning av komponenterna i träfibrer. Förhorning är ett fenomen där, i nuläget praktiskt sett irreversibla, processer i samband med torkning förändrar fibrernas svällning och flexibilitet och därmed bindningsförmåga. Bindningsförmågan till andra fibrer har stor inverkan på hur starka fibernätverk kan skapas och […]
Soft highly swelling fibres by alkali-activated chemical modification
To make cellulose fibres more flexible and malleable, components inside the fibre must be properly modified, that is, the lignin, hemicellulose or cellulose needs to be at least partly transformed into a proper derivative. Several cellulose derivatives are today produced through chemical reactions that involves formation of ether bonds. To reach sufficient efficiency, these reactions […]
Wood-based barriers for wood-based materials
Paper/wood-based materials suffer from poor barrier and moisture-sensitive properties (left figure). By learning how nature (plants/fruits) create moisture and gas barriers, we have developed crosslinked barrier biopolyesters (representing the cutin layer in plants) with also a process that yields a rough wax-like outer layer, similar to what is observed in plants, giving high surface hydrophobicity […]
Energy efficiency and modelling of vacuum dewatering in modern tissue machines
The project is a research coproduction between the research environment Pro2BE at Karlstad University, Valmet and Albany International about energy efficiency of tissue production. The project is aimed at acquiring deeper knowledge about tissue vacuum dewatering and at modelling vacuum dewatering during tissue production, both with a conventional tissue manufacturing method (DCT) and with Through […]
Biobased barriers on packaging substrates
The PhD project in chemical engineering will use wood-pulp fibres, modified cellulosic materials, dewatering and drying as well as computational fluid dynamics, mass transfer models, rheological characterization of complex fluids and renewable packaging solutions. The studies will involve experimental work as well as calculations and modelling of the barrier performance. The research focus of the […]
Quantifying fire-retardant concentrations in fire-retardant treated wood
This project focuses on one of the most basic questions within the topic of fire retarded (FR) treated wood; “how we can actually measure the concentration of FR in wood specimens”, this seems like a trivial question, but is actually a significant issue, barrier to further research studies, and more wide spread usage of wood […]
