TY - BOOK
T1 - Piecing together research needs
T2 - safety, environmental performance and regulatory issues of nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC)
AU - Lähtinen, K.
AU - Valve, H.
AU - Jouttijärvi, T.
AU - Kautto, P.
AU - Koskela, S.
AU - Leskinen, P.
AU - Silvo, K.
AU - Pitkänen, Marja
AU - Kangas, Heli
AU - Tukiainen, Pauliina
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - Control over matter on the atomic scale or nanoscale
enables the creation of devices and structures with
ground-breaking characteristics. Novel materials are
expected to improve ecological efficiency, enhance
quality of life and generate economic growth. In forest
industry, there are numerous potential uses for
nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC). However, the life cycle
safety and environmental impacts of NFC are largely
unknown. Due to this, incorporating the environmental
considerations into research and development work is
needed at the very beginning of NFC-based value chain
development. The purpose of the study was to identify the
most critical research needs relating to product safety,
environmental performance and regulation challenges of
producing and using NFC in intermediate and end products.
The project was to bring together a wide spectrum of top
experts to contemplate existing results and to prioritise
unanswered questions relating to NFC production and usage
in different phases of value chains. According to the
results, identified research needs can be divided into
two main topics: testing and test procedures and
environmental behaviour of NFC. The development on-time
regulation and standards was considered as important, but
in many cases it was noted to be proceeding at a slow
pace. Due to this, proactive communication with
customers, authorities and consumers were considered to
be an important question that requires research inputs.
It was emphasised that research results on safety issues
and environmental product characteristics, for example,
are needed for reliable communication between different
actors. The debates also opened up practical questions
about the appropriate modes and arenas of cooperation
between different stakeholders. Moreover, as became very
evident in the debates during the pre-study, dialogue
around new technologies and their implications are needed
not only between administrators, scientists and private
enterprises, but also more widely across the whole
society.
AB - Control over matter on the atomic scale or nanoscale
enables the creation of devices and structures with
ground-breaking characteristics. Novel materials are
expected to improve ecological efficiency, enhance
quality of life and generate economic growth. In forest
industry, there are numerous potential uses for
nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC). However, the life cycle
safety and environmental impacts of NFC are largely
unknown. Due to this, incorporating the environmental
considerations into research and development work is
needed at the very beginning of NFC-based value chain
development. The purpose of the study was to identify the
most critical research needs relating to product safety,
environmental performance and regulation challenges of
producing and using NFC in intermediate and end products.
The project was to bring together a wide spectrum of top
experts to contemplate existing results and to prioritise
unanswered questions relating to NFC production and usage
in different phases of value chains. According to the
results, identified research needs can be divided into
two main topics: testing and test procedures and
environmental behaviour of NFC. The development on-time
regulation and standards was considered as important, but
in many cases it was noted to be proceeding at a slow
pace. Due to this, proactive communication with
customers, authorities and consumers were considered to
be an important question that requires research inputs.
It was emphasised that research results on safety issues
and environmental product characteristics, for example,
are needed for reliable communication between different
actors. The debates also opened up practical questions
about the appropriate modes and arenas of cooperation
between different stakeholders. Moreover, as became very
evident in the debates during the pre-study, dialogue
around new technologies and their implications are needed
not only between administrators, scientists and private
enterprises, but also more widely across the whole
society.
KW - nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC)
KW - value chain
KW - safety
KW - environmental performance
KW - regulation
M3 - Report
SN - 978-952-5947-27-4
T3 - Lappeenranta University of Technology: Department of Information Technology. Research report
BT - Piecing together research needs
ER -