Researchers at Sweden’s Luleå University of Technology have developed a new technology that enables to boost production of nanocellulose from forest residues, reports the web site The Engineer.
The development might result in new saleable products such as nanofilters that can clean gases, industrial water and drinking water.
‘There is large interest in this from industries, especially because our bio-nanofilters are expected to be of great importance for the purification of water all around the globe,’ said Aji Mathew, associate Professor at Luleå University of Technology, as quoted by The Engineer.
The researchers recently demonstrated to industry and researchers how they scaled up nanocellulose manufacturing processes from two different forest residues.
The first was cellulose from the mill Domsjö Fabriker, where fibre residue was reduced to tiny nanofibres in a grinding machine. Through this process, the researchers were able to increase the amount of cellulose nanofibre, processing from 2kg per day to 15kg per day.
