Packaging is necessary to transport and protect food and goods and communicate with the end-user. The food packaging industry, agile to follow consumer expectations and societal changes, is nowadays taking the challenge to improve its sustainability and reduce its environmental impact. CelluWiz project will greatly participate to take the challenge by developing, from TRL 3 up to 5, two innovative processes able to produce all-cellulose, recyclable and compostable, multilayer materials for packaging. A consortium of 5 partners, including 3 RTOs and 2 industrial groups from 4 European countries, has been set up to reach the following objectives: -Develop the MFC wet lamination process. This process assembles, without glue, a board with a layer of MicroFibrillated Celluloses, creating a stratified cellulosic material. The MFC layer confers stiffness, lightweighting, barrier to air, grease, contaminants and oxygen. -Develop a specific version of the chromatogeny coating and grafting process for MFC layers. This ultrafast and efficient solvent free chemical grafting process will be fully revised to create a micron size layer of pure cellulose ester which will bring liquid resistance and water vapour barrier. -Produce 3 proofs of concept (Clamshell, Cup, and Tray) showing performances at least equivalent to market references. -Demonstrate the environmental benefits of the innovative processes and materials and their easy integration into the value chain, by performing LCA and LCC and by submitting the project advances to an advisory group composed of stakeholders of the value chain. At the end of the project, small pilot machines will be able to prove that the CelluWiz’ materials can offer a competitive alternative to existing multi-layers plastic materials or multi-materials while being renewable, recyclable/recycled in the paper waste value chain and biodegradable.

Plastic waste poses an important environmental problem in Europe and worldwide, especially from leakage to natural habitats. Of more than 29 Mt of plastic post-consumer waste collected in the EU in 2020, the average recycling rate of packaging waste was less than 40%. Packaging is the largest end-use market of plastic demand (40.5%). Multilayer packaging (e.g. paper/plastic composites), widely used in the food and beverage industry, applies mostly polyethylene (PE) film as plastic coating. In the agriculture sector, plastics are used to enhance crop yield, save water and agrochemicals but bear the risk of being lost during operation. Agricultural plastics market represents 3.2% of the plastic demand and the 50% increase in global food supplies expected by 2050 will lead to a substantially higher demand of plastics for mulch films (today mainly made of PE). REBIOLUTION aims to design and synthetize novel fully bio-based and biodegradable polyester blends based on 2,5-Furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) and other bio-based monomers fit for specific product-market applications selected in this project for their widespread use and negative impact on the environment: (1) plastic coating for food packaging (e.g. for frozen/chilled food or ready meal trays) and (2) mulch films for agricultural applications. Well-defined properties will be established by carefully tuning the polymer blends for each application in order to boost the sustainability performance (non-toxic substances used, reduced non-renewable energy consumption, recyclable and at the same time home compostable and biodegradable in soil and aquatic environments) and improved functionality while ensuring product and processes safety. REBIOLUTION is committed to remove barriers to market penetration by providing a drop-in bio-based polymer blend replacement that fosters a seamless transition for the downstream value-chain, avoiding additional investment in the processing industrial lines and extra-costs for consumers