Through two projects funded by PolyNat (Microfoam, Cellufoam and SubioFoams), our teams are developing bio-sourced foams with similar characteristics to the oil-sourced foams conventionally used in packaging to improve impact resistance, compressive strength or can be used as thermal insulator (expanded polystyrene, polyurethane).

To generate foams, they formulated suspensions based on micro-fibrillated cellulose (MFC), and identified the most appropriate foaming technique.

They managed to develop fully instrumented foam generator pilots, that enable the continuous production of stable foams with controlled aeration rates.

The teams are now studying the appropriate drying technologies in order to obtain a process that can be scaled up for the industrial production of bio-sourced foams and able to compete with their oil-sourced equivalents.