Packaging

Packaging made from popcorn

Friday 14. May 2021 - Nowadays, packaging should be sustainable in addition to the special requirements for transport, storage and product presentation. In this case, sustainable means: the material should be environmentally friendly and made from renewable raw materials, have good stability for possible reuse and be easy to recycle at the end of its useful life.

Forestry scientists at Göttingen University develop bio-based environmentally friendly material
A working group at the University of Göttingen has long been researching manufacturing processes for products made of popcorn, which could be an environmentally friendly alternative to polystyrene or plastic products. The university has now concluded a licensing agreement with the medium-sized company Nordgetreide on the commercial use of the process and the products for the packaging sector.
The packaging industry is still the most important customer of the plastics industry, accounting for almost 40 per cent. However, large producers and retail chains have long since begun to rethink their packaging concepts and make them more recyclable. The working group “Chemistry and Process Engineering of Composite Materials” at the Faculty of Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology at the University of Göttingen has now succeeded in developing a novel process, based on its many years of experience in the field of renewable raw materials, with which three-dimensional moulded bodies can be produced from popcorn granulate. The great advantage of this granulate is that it is a bio-based, environmentally friendly and sustainable alternative to the polystyrene-based products used in the industry so far.
“With this new process, which is based on the plastics industry, a wide variety of moulded parts can now be produced,” explains the head of the research group, Prof. Dr. Alireza Kharazipour. “Especially for the area of packaging, it can be guaranteed that products are transported safely. And this with a packaging material that is even biodegradable afterwards.” In addition, the new popcorn products have water-repellent properties, which increases their application possibilities even further.
Nordgetreide Managing Director Stefan Schult adds: “Every day we pollute our earth with an exponentially increasing amount of plastic waste that will burden our eco-system for thousands of years. Our popcorn packaging is an excellent, sustainable alternative to petroleum-based Styrofoam. The plant-based packaging is made from a non-food waste material from our cornflakes production and can be composted without residue after use.”
The licence agreement between the university and Nordgetreide was brokered by MBM ScienceBridge GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen Foundation under public law. The patent exploitation agency acts for a total of nine universities and scientific institutions in Lower Saxony: It examines scientific inventions for the possibility of a patent application and for economic potential. It then takes care of worldwide marketing and the negotiation, supervision and monitoring of licensing agreements. The current portfolio includes projects in biomedicine, medical technology, metrology, chemistry, physics, forestry and agricultural sciences.