When we think of using natural resources for products and applications, we often imagine a commonly used material: wood. But what if you could save money, go easy on the environment, and increase the value and yield of wood as a raw material for a broad variety of both "old-fashioned" and new products? There are a lot materials that might serve as our main fiber resources in the future. Think of plants like grasses, straw, banana peels, and eucalyptus, all of which are fast-growing and natural raw materials from which cellulose can be obtained thanks to new technologies.
Or how about producing items like clothes, compounds, insulating and composite materials, papers, and packaging using former waste products like hops extract residues, pomace, tomato stalks, or nutshells? That's not far-fetched: For example, the Netherlands alone produces a wet mass of 70,000 tons of tomato stalks each year. These stalks can already be introduced, inter alia, into solid board packaging. Using new materials like biogenic waste materials and by-products from other industries doesn't just pay off financially and environmentally, it can also deliver new properties like greater stability or a special feel for paper, tissue, and board products.
And the future holds even more possibilities – from highly profitable biorefineries to bio-based chemicals and consumer products.
