Technological watch

A brand new 30 cavity tool for spoons for Dry Molded Fiber production at PulPac’s Tech Center in Gothenburg, Sweden. Plastic spoons are one of the single-use items to be banned in Europe from July 1, 2021.

• Novel technology uses renewable pulp and cellulose resources to produce low cost, high performance, fiber-based packaging, and single-use products
• Dry Molded Fiber will reduce global CO2 emissions by at least 5 million tons by 2025 while conserving precious water resources.

Today the US Patent Office announced a grant for one of PulPac´s most general patents, stating that Dry Molded Fiber is invented and duly owned by the Swedish scale-up company. The United States is the world´s second largest packaging consumer market, after China. The same patent application was recently approved in Japan, the world’s third largest economy with a strong position in packaging and industrial development. Relatedly, China and Europe granted another important PulPac patent application earlier this year.

PulPac’s Dry Molded Fiber is a patented manufacturing technology – using renewable pulp and cellulose resources to produce low cost, high performance, fiber-based packaging, and single-use products. Dry Molded Fiber gives up to 80-90% lower CO2 footprint at the same or lower cost as plastic. It enables high-speed manufacturing and can replace most packaging and single-use products presently made of plastics.

“Our duty to the planet is to spread this technology as fast and wide as we can. To achieve this, we are setting out to scale quickly through licensing. To empower the efforts further we have formed an open source alliance called the Dry Molded Fiber Technology Pool that welcomes any converter, brand or supplier in plastics or fiber that wish to grow with, and support the advancement in the Dry Molded Fiber process,” comments Linus Larsson, CEO of PulPac.

Licensing from an independent technology provider is a proven business model for massive scale-up of new industrial technologies. With more than ten licensees at present and over 80 million dollars invested in the technology globally, the Dry Molded Fiber Technology Pool has entered the learning curve with a clear target to make circular fiber more cost effective than plastic in packaging.

“Together, we will win on price and sustainability against plastics. We will reduce global CO2 emissions from the industry with at least 5 million tons by 2025 while conserving precious water resources,” claims Larsson.

Earlier this year, PulPac, PA Consulting, and Seismic Solutions joined forces to encourage brands and manufacturers to replace single-use plastics with sustainable, affordable, Dry Molded Fiber products and accelerate the transition towards circular economy.

“The United States patent grant further validates the technology and represents another meaningful milestone on PulPac’s mission to eliminate single use plastics. Seismic Solutions is proud to partner with PulPac and PA Consulting as part of their commitment to packaging innovation and sustainability,” comments Kent Dahlgren, General Manager at Seismic Solutions.

Phil Fawcus, Sustainable Packaging Lead at PA Consulting, said: “Dry Molded Fiber is a unique technology that is playing a critical global role in delivering sustainable packaging at volumes needed to significantly impact plastics reduction. We are delighted this world changing technology has now been recognised with patents in the US, Japan, China and Europe.”

It is a giant mission to disrupt a trillion-dollar industry, but Dry Molded Fiber is one of the candidates leading the race for sustainable packaging. “PulPac is here to support the global transformation to fiber with many more advancement innovations to come,” Larsson concludes.

Source: PulPac, press release, 2021-06-01.
Author: Ann Dynehäll