Barrier Films from Renewable Forestry Waste

Abstract

Biobased free-standing films and coatings with low oxygen permeability were designed from a wood hydrolysate according to a recovery and formulation procedure that provides added value to wood converting industrial processes. Wood components released to the wastewater in the hydrothermal treatment of spruce wood were recovered and converted to an oligo- and polysaccharide-rich, noncellulosic fraction that was utilized in film formulations in a range of concentrations and compositions. Free-standing smooth and transparent films as well as coatings on thin PET were prepared and characterized with respect to oxygen permeability, tensile properties, structure, and water vapor transmission. With oxygen permeabilities as low as below 1 cm(3) μm m(-2) day(-1) kPa(-1) and with adequate mechanical properties, the films and coatings show promising property profiles for renewable packaging applications.

High Oxygen Nanocomposite Barrier Films Based on Xylan and Nanocrystalline Cellulose

“…4(d)). GGM/alginate/glycerol blend 4.6 [6] Oat spelt arabinoxylan films plasticized with 40% sorbitol 4.7 [13] Biobased free-standing films and coatings from a wood hydrolysate 1.0 [14] Xylan + 50% sulfonated cellulose whiskers 0.1799 (current study) …”

“…The oxygen permeability of oat spelt arabinoxylan films plasticized with 40% sorbitol was 4.7 cm 3 μm/m 2 dkPa, which is slightly lower than that of GGM films [13]. Biobased free-standing films and coatings with low oxygen permeability of 1 cm 3 μm/m 2 dkPa have been also prepared from a wood hydrolysate [14]. Films made from these polysaccharides are brittle and therefore to form cohesive films requires plasticizers such as sorbitol and xylitol.…”

Turning Wood Autohydrolysate Directly into Food Packing Composite Films with Good Toughness

“…Traditional oil-based polymer film materials are difficult to degrade, white pollution of which brings great harm to our earth [1]. Therefore, special attention has been given to renewable and bio-based materials because of their abundance, biodegradability, biocompatibility, and low toxicity [2][3][4][5]. Besides, bio-based materials (chitosan [6], starch [7], hemicelluloses [6,8], and so on) are suitable for food packaging film due to their excellent oxygen barrier.…”

“…However, two obvious drawbacks of hemicelluloses need to be overcome, that is, the typical brittleness [10,21] and the inherent hydrophilicity [10,22]. Several methods are commonly used to improve the performance of hemicelluloses films, including adding a certain amount of plasticizers (sorbitol, glycerol, and xylitol) in hemicelluloses solution [23,24], in the presence of plasticizers, mixing hemicelluloses and other natural polymers (starch, chitosan, cellulose nanofibers, lignin, carboxymethyl cellulose, and sodium alginate) [3,22], and chemical modification of hemicelluloses (esterification, etherification, cross-linking, and graft copolymerization) [25,26]. Although WH has great potential to convert into materials and fuels, the utilization of WH has not been widely studied.…”

Long-Term Physical Stability of Plasticized Hemicellulose Films

“…GGM contains mannose, glucose, and galactose in an average ratio of 4:1:0.5 (Willför et al 2003). Acetylated GGM is water-soluble and can be extracted from for example, processing waters of pulp mills, wastewaters of fiberboard mills, and by water extraction from wood chips (Willför et al 2003;Albertsson et al 2010;Edlund et al 2010;Song et al 2011). An increasing number of studies have investigated the use of hemicelluloses as sustainable packaging material, as pointed out in reviews by Hansen and Plackett (2008) and .…”