Renewable packaging material

Xylophane AB is a start-up company, which has developed a renewable barrier material for food packaging. It is a spin-off from biopolymer research at Chalmers. The material is a barrier to oxygen, grease and aroma and can be used to extend shelf life of oxygen sensitive, greasy and aromatic products. Today, materials such as aluminium foil and synthetic plastics (EVOH) dominate the market. Recycling these materials incorporated in a multilayer structure is complicated. In addition, prices of crude oil and metals are expected to increase further in the future. Therefore, the packaging industry has a great interest in finding renewable, cost efficient and functional alternatives.

Xylophane AB’s barrier coating is based xylan, a biopolymer which can be extracted from agricultural and forest residuals.

The master thesis work is focused on studying structure-property relationships of xylans. Enzymatic or hydrothermal treatment of xylan will be used to produce material fractions with different compositions and/or molecular weight distributions. These materials will be used to prepare films and coatings. Material properties such as mechanical properties, interactions with water/moisture and barrier properties of the films and coatings will be evaluated.

This master thesis is suitable for students in Biotechnology and Chemical Engineering, preferably with specialisation in Materials Chemistry.