IMX Talks - The Cellulose valley and its new (nano)cellulosic solutions for packaging

Among biobased materials, the nanocellulose family emergence over the last decade has been highly promising. Such cellulosic materials have numerous advantages which favor their uses in several various applications, especially in packaging. It is biobased, bicompatible, biodegradable but also it helps in recycling. Since the beginning, the nanocellulose industry focuses its efforts to up-scale mainly their production and develop the commercialization of these nanoscaled cellulose. 
This key step has been more complex than expected despite their promising properties, mainly because of process issues regarding sustainability and energy consumption during their production. One part of the presentation will discuss about how sustainable can be considered the production of nanocellulose.
At the same time, it was not so obvious to find tangibles  applications, even in fiber based materials packaging, one of the most commonly described and expected applications. During this presentation , we will discuss some of the main challenges of the use of nanocellulose in the fibre based  packaging industry and share how nanocellulose can help for promising solutions by providing some examples from the Cellulose Valley, an industrial excellence chair launched on the topic in Grenoble for 2022-2026. Some example of value-added functionalization of such materials and the application of such nanocellulose on 2D and 3D packaging will also be proposed to conclude and propose perspectives.

Bio: Prof. Julien Bras (H index: 65; more than 200 scientific papers & 20 patents) is professor at Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP Pagora).
After engineer diploma in Chemistry and a PhD on Renewable Materials for biopackaging in 2004, he worked in industry few years and then left industry to become associate professor in 2006.
Since that time, he has directly supervised 42 PhD, 23 Post-doc and more than 80 master students.
He is member of Institut Universitaire de France (top delegation for french professor). Among the world's Top 2% most-cited scientists, he received the French “Academy of Science” Major Prize of Innovation (IMT Espoir) in 2017, the international mid-career award from Tappi Nano in 2019 and the French “Academy of Science” Major Prize of Renewable materials chemistry in 2023.
During two years (2019-2021), he has worked in Nestle thanks to a disponibility sabbatical period as Senior Expert and Department Head in the Institute of Packaging Science in the global Nestle Research Center in Switzerland.
He is head of the “Multiscale Biobased Material” group (ab. 40 pers., 9 years). Since 2021, he is in charge of International Affairs of Grenoble INP Pagora and he has launched the Cellulose Valley Chair in 2021 with 8 companies for 5 years.
Through his different experiences, he develops several competences. His expertise deals particularly with nanocellulose and their functionalization, paper science, biobased and smart materials, mainly for sustainable packaging applications.