Fulfilling the industrial potential of nanocellulose

Abstract

Overpromising has been a constant trait of the nanosciences, and the case of nanocellulose makes no exception. Regardless of substantial academic and industrial research efforts re-started in the early 2000s, global production nanocellulose in 2018 amounted to less than 40,000 tonnes, chiefly in the form of microfibrillated cellulose for low value utilization in paper and cardboard products. Since the early 2000s market research analysts regularly estimate large market annual growth rates that so far never materialized. Besides replacement of conventional production methods with economically viable green chemistry processes, fulfilling the nanocellulose industrial potential requires to learn from the hype technology phase.

Cavitation as a zero-waste circular economy process to convert citrus processing waste into biopolymers in high demand

“…Its demand is expanding at quick rate because MCC is increasingly used also in the food (as stabilizer, anti-caking agent, fat substitute, and emulsifier), beverage (as gelling agent, stabilizer and suspending agent), and cosmetic (as binder) industries [4]. The high selling price of nanocellulose, on the other hand, so far has limited applications of this exceptional bionanomaterial to a few composite materials and, as in the case of bacterial nanocellulose, in medicine [5].…”