Upgrading cellulose fibers into porous materials
Lightweight, energy-absorbing foams made from wood pulp fibres – a renewable alternative to plastic foams.
Porous, lightweight, low-density materials are produced in large volumes, mostly from synthetic polymers that do not break down easily. BreadCell developed radically new technologies to make them from natural resources instead.
Our main raw material was wood pulp fibres, the same fibres used to make paper. Together we developed foaming processes that use wood fibres and wood macromolecules such as xylan, and converted them into high-value, lightweight, energy-absorbing and load-transferring composites – for example for sports equipment and safety components of cars. Safe and sustainable by design principles guided the whole process chain.
Research themes
Light weightTowards renewable foams
Resource efficiencyWood pulp fibers
Sustainable mobilityFoams for safer, greener vehicles
Sandwich structuresFibre foam cores
Safety and sustainabilitySafe and sustainable by design
Research output
- VideoBreadCell sandwich structures
- VideoThe BreadCell demonstrators
- ReportEvaluation of fibre foams in the automotive sector
- ReportEvaluation of fire performance of the fibre foams
- ReportSafety and sustainability evaluation of BreadCell materials
- FactsheetFoam properties
- Papers17 scientific publications
Consortium
