Agricultural residues can provide completely sustainable material

Straw and other residues from agriculture and forestry must be used as new materials that can both be recycled and repaired during their life cycle. Photo: Ihar Leichonak Mostphotos

Crude oil is perhaps the most important commodity on earth today. In addition to being used as fuel, it is also of crucial importance for the production of various plastics and other materials. But crude oil will slowly run out and in light of ongoing global warming, crude oil must be phased out of production. Simultaneously, the world's population is increasing and thus the need for food.

Much is left behind in the fields

Despite the increasing need for food, today only around 10 percent of the biomass produced in the fields is used as food. Much is left behind, burned or turned into silage or other products that do not become food for humans. There is thus enormous potential to take advantage of this non-edible part of what is produced in agriculture. By finding new areas of use, it is possible to refine agricultural residues into products with greater value - and which can replace products made from crude oil.

Joseph Samec
Photo: Niklas Björling

Joseph Samec, professor of organic chemistry at Stockholm University, now has the opportunity to hire a doctoral student to research how agricultural residues can be refined. He is one of a total of 90 researchers who are awarded funds in the first call for doctoral and postdoctoral projects within WISE (The Wallenberg Initiative Materials Science for Sustainability) to employ doctoral students or postdocs for research on sustainable materials.

New process releases lignin from cellulose

The goal of the research project is to be able to produce a material from agricultural residues that can be both recycled and repaired during its life cycle. The focus of the research is lignin, which is a substance that binds together cellulose fibers in wood, and which is often regarded as a residual product in forestry and agriculture. Joseph Samec's research group has recently discovered a new chemical process that releases the lignin from the cellulose. It occurs through a reaction with hemicellulose, which is a group of carbohydrates found in plant cell walls together with lignin and cellulose. The chemical compound (polymer) that is then created is supposed to be joined with paper pulp to create a new functional composite material.

Materials that can be repaired and recycled

What will be special about this material is that it can be repaired and recycled but also gain new functions through chemical processes during its life cycle. And when the material is worn-out, it can be broken down in nature. All raw materials that are included and that are needed in the process to manufacture and reuse the new material will be produced from residual products from agriculture. This creates a completely circular and sustainable material.

Research on jet fuel and textiles

Joseph Samec is already doing research on how residual products from forestry and agriculture can find new uses. So far, he has mainly studied residual products from forestry. Among other things, he is studying lignin, which was previously considered a residual product in the forest industry, to see if it can be used for jet fuel. Together with Aji Mathew, professor of chemistry with a focus on bio-based materials at Stockholm University, he also leads a research project on how residues from Swedish forestry can replace cotton in the production of textiles for healthcare and thus reduce the climate impact. They also run a project on  how recycling of textiles and forest residues can be used to produce chemicals and nanocellulose.

Fast-growing poplar. Photo: Almir Karacic

Together with researchers at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), he has also developed a model for the production of textiles and biofuel from fast-growing poplar. By applying sustainable catalysis methods to poplar grown in Nordic climates, the researchers want to reduce the demand for cotton to free up large areas of agricultural land from producing cotton (which requires a lot of water and pesticides) to grow food.
 
Read more about Joseph Samec's research.

Roots and branches will become clothes for healthcare professionals

Fast-growing poplars can release land for food production

Damaged wood can become raw material for clothing.
 

Read more on research within WISE

New recruitments within major investment in sustainable materials

Lab-on-a-Chip, a new way of understanding the spread of environmental pollutants, article on Nicole Pamme´s research.

Conversion of carbon dioxide back into fuels, article on Sergey Koroidov´s research.