New bio­tech­no­logy product to make water­proof paper using nat­ur­al enzymes

Ori­ol Cusola, a 29-year-old research­er from Lleida, has pat­en­ted a new aqueous com­pound to func­tion­al­ise or modi­fy the prop­er­ties of paper and any oth­er cel­lu­losic mater­i­al. The com­pound uses nat­ur­al enzymes instead of the tra­di­tion­al chem­ic­al reagents, is bio­de­grad­able, and involves no envir­on­ment­al impact. Most import­ant, it is eas­ily applic­able in the pro­duc­tion pro­cess and requires no addi­tion­al invest­ment. This major tech­no­lo­gic­al innov­a­tion will greatly facil­it­ate the cre­ation of new paper products with high added value. So far, the com­pany apply­ing the new product is able to make water­proof paper in an altern­at­ive way using bio­tech­no­logy and without using the com­mon chem­ic­als that hinder recyc­ling. By means of a single applic­a­tion, the new product makes paper mul­ti­func­tion­al or gives it sev­er­al prop­er­ties, such as being hydro­phobic and anti­ox­id­ant or act­ing as a bar­ri­er.

Water­proof paper without chem­ic­al reagents

Though com­pan­ies are keen to invest in bio­tech­no­logy, the intro­duc­tion of enzymat­ic treat­ments that modi­fy paper in order to cre­ate new products from cel­lu­lose is com­plex and costly. To gen­er­ate the enzymat­ic reac­tion, the pro­duc­tion must be stopped at a par­tic­u­lar stage in the indus­tri­al pro­cess. The new com­pound pat­en­ted by Cusola adheres to the sur­face of the paper and instantly mod­i­fies its prop­er­ties. It can be applied imme­di­ately with­in cur­rent man­u­fac­tur­ing sys­tems without stop­ping the pro­duc­tion line. Cusola and the CEL­BI­OTECH paper research group of the Uni­versit­at Politèc­nica de Catalun­ya — Bar­celon­aT­ech (UPC) have done spe­cif­ic work on mak­ing paper hydro­phobic and their new pat­en­ted com­pound allows paper to be water­proofed without using con­ven­tion­al chem­ic­al reagents. The group have also exper­i­mented with cel­lu­lose-based tex­tiles to check the effect­ive­ness of the new product. One of the res­ults is that they were able to make a baby’s bib water­proof on one side by spray­ing it with the product.

A revolu­tion in the paper industry

The com­pan­ies in the paper industry that imple­ment Cusol­a’s innov­a­tion will become more com­pet­it­ive and save energy and chem­ic­als. They will also save on trans­port­a­tion costs, because the com­pound can be con­cen­trated for easy dis­tri­bu­tion. How­ever, the main value of this innov­a­tion is that it can be used to make products with high added value from cel­lu­losic sub­strates using bio­tech­no­lo­gic­al meth­ods that are more envir­on­ment­ally friendly. Cusol­a’s innov­a­tion may there­fore revolu­tion­ise this indus­tri­al sec­tor. On the mar­ket there are cur­rently about 2,900 dif­fer­ent types of spe­cial papers that are not used for writ­ing. At a time of growth of elec­tron­ic pub­lic­a­tions, the trend in the inter­na­tion­al paper industry is to seek to modi­fy or func­tion­al­ise the prop­er­ties of cel­lu­lose to gen­er­ate new uses and new applic­a­tions. Examples are giv­ing paper the prop­er­ties of plastics and oth­er pet­ro­leum products to man­u­fac­ture bio­de­grad­able food car­tons; mak­ing paper anti­ox­id­ant so that it can keep food for longer; chan­ging paper­’s prop­er­ties to make it suf­fi­ciently water­proof for man­u­fac­tur­ing cups without adding par­affin; and adding anti­bac­teri­al sub­stances to pro­duce infec­tion-proof dress­ings. Source: Uni­versit­at Politèc­nica de Catalun­ya — Bar­celon­aT­ech (UPC)