Researchers from Denmark created a way to replace plastic for packaging products and drinks, cellulose from feed for livestock. After removing the protein from grass, an unused part rich in fiber remains. It will be used by the scholars of the SINPROPACK project, which started on March 1, 2021 in order to offer an alternative to one-time plastic packaging. This was announced by the site of the Danish Technological Institute, which coordinates the project.
“Increasing the consumption of food products provokes a rise in disposable plastic demand, and the problem is growing. The project will lead to a change in the paradigm of its solution by implementing and demonstrating packaging based on herbal fiber for food products and demonstrating it on supermarket shelves,” they told Inventors.
According to the statement of scientists of the University of Aarhus, more than 10 thousand tons of packaging for food and drinks are used in Denmark. Replacing this volume of one-time plastic corresponding to the amount of packaging on a biological basis will reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the production of packaging by about 210 thousand tons of CO2 per year.
“Disposable packaging made of grass has a lot of ECOPRUESTUNESSUES. Packaging will be 100 percent biodegradable, so if someone accidentally leave a container in nature, he will decompose naturally,” Anne Christine Slatine (Anne Christine Steenkjær explained HASTRUP), Director of the Center for the Danish Technological Institute.
In addition to the grass within the project, clover will be studied as a source of fiber. It is intended to be used as primary biomass for future biotic-cleaning factories. A biomass of peat soil will also be studied.
According to Association of Morten Ambier-Jensen (Morten Ambye-Jensen) from the Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering of the University of Aarhus, packaging will be made after the grasses collected for the production of feed will be removed protein. The residues of the grass are cleaned and grind to make cellulose, which has become an alternative to disposable plastic.
Danish scientists are implemented in the period when the level of carbon dioxide is growing, even taking into account the fact that the pandemic led to a partial decrease in its volumes. In 2020, carbon dioxide level rose to 2.6 parts per million, which is one of the highest indicators since NOAA (National Ocean and Atmospheric Research) began to track it over 60 years ago. Since 2000, atmospheric CO2 has rose by about 12 percent, and atmospheric methane is six percent.
At the same time, the United Kingdom in May put a record for the production of clean energy. Helped this storms. Strong wind on May 21 stored electricity more than half of the United Kingdom.