German manufacturing group Henkel and Finland’s technical research institute VTT have established a new bio-based packaging resource that could replace fossil plastics in e-commerce packing. The joint scheme, aimed at VTT’s pilot service in Jyväskylä, led to market-ready cellulose foam products planned for industrial-scale use.
The association marks a significant step toward more sustainable packaging choices in an industry long dominated by fossil-based resources. By utilizing a custom-built pilot line, VTT enabled Henkel to scale its resource formula from laboratory trials to full industrial production, an important step often referred to as the “valley of death” in invention projects.
Henkel is a worldwide leader in consumer goods and industrial adhesives, headquartered in Düsseldorf, and employs about 47,000 people worldwide, with annual revenue of 21.6 billion euros. As part of its sustainability plan, the business has worked for many years to reduce the use of plastic packaging and replace it with recyclable and renewable alternatives.
The partnership with VTT aimed to generate a recyclable, formable, and lightweight foam resource made from wood fibers. VTT is Finland’s state-owned technical research center and one of Europe’s top institutes in biotechnology and resource science, and has previously developed foam-making technologies for fiber-based resources.
To test and generate the resources at an industrial scale, VTT constructed a dedicated pilot line at its study center in Jyväskylä. A complete hall was vacant for the installation of something unparalleled in VTT’s history, as per senior researcher Elina Pääkkönen.
The group has built a completely new pilot line with complete production capacity for Henkel. During the test phase, Henkel’s consumers were also asked to evaluate the procedure, and one was so overwhelmed that they obviously wanted to reposition a similar line to their own service in the United States, Pääkkönen stated.
Through the project, the stuff’s belongings were uninterruptedly verified and refined. The result was a commercially feasible resource that Henkel can now provide to clients for utilizing on their own manufacturing lines.
26 January 2026
26 January 2026
23 January 2026
23 January 2026