Upcycling leftover cardboard to make a new type of foam packaging

The upcycled material was stronger and more insulating than traditional, plastic foam-based cushioning

19-Dec-2023 - With the holiday season in full swing, gifts of all shapes and sizes are being shipped around the world. But all that packaging generates lots of waste, including cardboard boxes and plastic-based foam cushioning, such as Styrofoam™. Rather than discard those boxes, researchers publishing in ACS ...

From the packet into your food: what harmful substances are in food packaging?

Database of previously undocumented chemicals

01-Jun-2022 - Salad boxes to go, sealed-tray lasagna and apple juice in PET bottles: we encounter packaged food and drink everywhere. A new database shows which packaging contains harmful substances that can be transferred to its contents. It also includes findings from researchers at the University of Basel, ...

Materials Research Says Yes to Wood

Green alternatives to fossil raw materials: Bio-based materials are expected to reduce pollution and drive the shift to a more sustainable economy

12-May-2021 - As a renewable resource, wood offers great potential in the fight against the climate crisis. First, it sequesters large amounts of carbon (1 ton per cubic meter!). Moreover, it is an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil based resources, which cause the majority of greenhouse gas ...

Clever solutions for label and packaging processes in highly regulated industries such as the chemical sector

From idea to independence: BASF incubator Chemovator spins off first employee startup

27-Apr-2021 - BOXLAB Services GmbH is the first startup to celebrate its spin-off from Chemovator in April 2021. There, promising ideas outside of the core business of BASF are developed and build into scalable business models and companies. With the right resources, the necessary freedom and respective ...

Stora Enso invests in pilot plant for bio-based plastic packaging material

12-Dec-2019 - Stora Enso is investing EUR 9 million to build a pilot facility for enabling the production of bio-based plastics as barrier in transparent packaging. The pilot plant will convert plant-based sugars into the renewable building block required to make PEF, a bio-based plastic, mainly targeting the ...

Stora Enso acquires Swedish cellulose technology company

30-Oct-2018 - Stora Enso has increased its ownership up to 100% in the Sweden-based company Cellutech AB. The company specialises in the development of new materials and applications based on cellulose, micro-fibrillated cellulose (MFC) and other wood-based components. The acquisition of Cellutech supports ...

BASF and Avantium intend to establish joint venture

Further development and licensing of Avantium’s production processes for FDCA and PEF at industrial scale

16-Mar-2016 - BASF and Avantium announced that they have signed a letter of intent and entered into exclusive negotiations to establish a joint venture (JV) for the production and marketing of furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), as well as marketing of polyethylenefuranoate (PEF), based on this new chemical ...

With carbon nanotubes, a path to flexible, low-cost sensors

Potential applications range from air-quality monitors to electronic skin

27-Sep-2013 - Researchers at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) are showing the way toward low-cost, industrial-scale manufacturing of a new family of electronic devices. A leading example is a gas sensor that could be integrated into food packaging to gauge freshness, or into compact wireless ...