News

• 2025-02-18

  Leather substitutes made of fungal biomass can become your new handbag or steering wheel cover

  Imagine a handbag or a steering wheel upholstered in leather – but made of artificial leather made from fungi grown from food waste. In a new research project the goal is to develop just that in collaboration with industry.

  The project aims to meet societal challenges such as food waste and the production of natural leather that is ethically and environmentally questioned due to unsustainable production methods.

  There are already various alternatives to artificial leather. These often contain fossil-based plastics to meet the desired properties. The substitutes also often do not meet the desired quality characteristics and environmental requirements, which makes it interesting to work closely with industry in the project.

• 2025-01-31

  Karlstad University part of new EU project on circular economy

  In collaboration with eleven partners from six countries, Karlstad University is participating in a new EU project that was recently granted funding as part of the programme Circular Bio-based Europe. The project, WoodVALOR, focuses on the transformation of contaminated wood into high-performance paints, coatings and biochar using sustainable methods.

  – This is an innovative bioeconomy project with partners from the UK, Ireland, Finland, France, Belgium and Sweden, says Ali Mohammadi, sub-project leader and associate professor in environmental and energy systems. By developing and optimising advanced purification and fractionation processes, we want to maximise resource efficiency by reusing 100 per cent of the wood.

• 2025-01-20

  Circular Bioeconomy is an Innovation Ecosystem

  At the BioEco Valley Summit, hosted by Karlstad University, Pro2BE, in collaboration with Paper Province, Region Värmland, and Sting BioEconomy, researchers and industry representatives gathered to discuss the future of the bioeconomy. The event focused on how stakeholders can jointly continue to drive the development of a circular bio-based economy and contribute to the green transition.

  – The circular bio-based economy needs to grow, and for that, we also need a workforce, said Magnus Lestelius, Professor of Graphic Technology at Karlstad University, who opened the conference. - By showcasing the diversity of careers within the forest industry, we can highlight the many opportunities available to students.

• 2024-12-03

  Cellulose conference gathers researchers from all over the world

  The conference Cellulose Workshop, an international workshop focused on cellulose research, has been organised for the eleventh time. The 11th Workshop on Cellulose, Regenerated Cellulose, and Cellulose Derivatives gathered participants from 10 countries to learn about the latest research findings in the field.

  – I had the pleasure of organising the 11th Cellulose Workshop at Karlstad University. It was a success thanks to our excellent keynote speakers, presenters, participants, sponsors and organisers, says Björn Sjöstrand, Docent in Chemical engineering. I would especially like to mention Professor Ulf Germgård, who initiated the workshop over 20 years ago. Since then, it has been held more or less every other year with Karlstad University and Umeå University as organisers.

• 2024-11-08

  Honoured for research in fundamental separation science

  Professor of Analytical Chemistry Torgny Fornstedt received the J. F. K. Huber Lecture Award at the International Symposium on Chromatography (ISC 2024) in Liverpool in October. The award was given for ‘highly recognised contributions to the fundamental understanding of adsorption chromatography’.

  ‘This distinction means a great deal to me, as J. F. K. Huber was involved in launching chromatography research in analytical chemistry at Uppsala University, my alma mater’, said Fornstedt. 

• 2024-08-22

  Research for greener manufacturing and increased recycling

  Researchers at Karlstad University have started a 3-year project focusing on greener manufacturing and increased recycling of forest-based materials. They already have extensive knowledge about the chemical processes involved in providing product properties that determine the possibility of recycling. The new project is about transferring that knowledge to an industrial scale.

  – In previous research projects, we have looked at the chemical processes during dewatering and drying that affect the recycling of cellulose-based materials, says Björn Sjöstrand, docent in Chemical Engineering. It is about temperature and water content through the manufacturing process and we have carried out studies on a laboratory scale. Through a research grant from ÅForsk, we now have the opportunity to continue our studies and see how we can transfer the methods from our laboratories to an industrial scale.