Wooden you know?

German scientists have produced new materials that look and behave like plastics from a renewable raw material known as 'liquid wood'. Such bioplastics derived from 100 per cent renewable raw materials would represent a step towards sustainable manufacturing.

Developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (ICT) in Pfinztal and the Fraunhofer spin-off company Tecnaro GmbH in Germany, the new bioplastic, Arboform, is based on lignin, a waste product of the paper industry. 'The paper industry separates wood into its three main components - lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose', explains ICT team leader Emilia Regina Inone-Kauffmann. The raw lignin is not used in papermaking, so the Tecnaro scientists mix this with fine natural fibres of wood, hemp or flax together with natural additives, such as wax, to produce a granular plastic material that can be melted and injection-moulded into almost any shape.