By Amanda Marcus, Roberts Media
When an engineering student looking for work knocked on the door of one of Sweden's best-known architect and design firms, Claesson Koivisto Rune, little did he know that he was on the verge of discovering a whole new world for pulp. Joakim Nygren has an MSc in machine design, so when one of the partners threw an egg carton onto the table and challenged him to make a chair from it, Nygren's reply was "Sure, I can do that."
In truth, Nygren didn't have a clue. He knew that paper was not an immediate choice for furniture designers for the obvious reason that it's too fragile. What he didn't know was that the Swedish research firm formerly known as STFI Packforsk (now Innventia) had taken on the challenge of eliminating the fragility of cellulose back in 2004, by mixing woodpulp with 25% polylactic acid or PLA, a corn-based polymer. It found that when the mix was heated to 167˚C, the plastic encapsulated the paper fibres. The result was a material with all the properties of ordinary paper but with a key difference - it could cope with large changes in weight and humidity: Just a couple of millimetres thickness had the strength of wood or hard plastic, even steel - its inventors were just looking for a chance to prove it.
Nygren still had contacts at Innventia from his student days, so he approached them with his chair challenge. They in turn contacted Mikael Lindström, head of research at Södra. Working in the mature pulp markets of Western Europe, Södra is more than keen to seek out new applications and markets for its products. So Lindström settled down to more than a few evenings of overtime with the new composite. Some 18 months and a lot of testing later, Lindström and the team realised they had a material in which creep was non-existent - it was not affected by temperature fluctuations and air humidity. Södra called the new composite Durapulp.
Back at the design firm, they decided it would be appropriate to make a child's chair with the new material since it has a life expectancy of 3-4 years after which it is completely biodegradable. As well as being biodegradable, they came up with a design which is stackable, inexpensive to produce and lightweight (imagine how easy the vacuuming would be, say its inventors, if you could lift all the furniture with one hand, not to mention the savings on transportation and emission levels if loads were cut by 80%). Nothing has been included which could compromise recyclability - no glue, tape, or staples. "I dare you to find a more eco friendly chair. The pulp used is classified for food substances," Nygren says. "I wouldn't eat it, but you can eat off it. It's completely safe."
The team named the chair Parupu, after the Japanese word for paper, (a tribute to a culture famed for its innovative use of paper). Parupu was launched at the Milan Furniture Fair in May and went down a storm. Its designers are talking to numerous interested parties in the hope that it will be in commercial production by next year.
For Nygren it was job done, the world's first fully biodegradable chair made from pulp was complete. Södra saw his involvement rather as the start of something new and asked Nygren to head up a new initiative, PulpLabs*, which will aim to push the boundaries for pulp and paper. He's already working on his next challenges, FoamPulp and NanoPulp. The idea is to continue Södra's theme of ‘growing together' with its partners in the chain. Any ideas or challenges for pulp will be welcomed, at the very least discussed, and if possible, taken further. It's clear that Parupu's popularity in Milan opens up a wealth of opportunities for the new pulp-based composite in applications previously reserved for the likes of plastic.
"Before this project started, we admitted to ourselves that if we could make a chair from DuraPulp, we could do almost anything," Nygren explains. "The chair is done. Now it's time for almost anything, the only question is what next - car engines, disaster relief housing, playhouses or pallets?"
*To find out more about PulpLabs, Parupu and follow their progress, visit www.sodrapulplabs.com . Södra believes the world will be a better place with a little more paper. If you agree and have any ideas on paper, Södra would like to hear from you.
