Oct 31 2013
Israeli startup Melodea Ltd., a leading provider of bio based Nano technology to produce foams from renewable resources, was granted 3 European research grants for 3 groundbreaking projects. Melodea's technology is based on Nano Crystalline Cellulose (NCC), a primary building block of all living plants that was discovered years ago and was shown to be a most promising raw material for the development of high quality, economically attractive bio-based alternatives to fossil oil polymers.
Melodea Ltd. is developing an economically viable industrial process for the extraction of NCC from the sludge of the paper industry, a waste stream produced at millions of tons around the world. The core of the novel technology was developed by the lab of Professor Oded Shoseyov from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was licensed exclusively to Melodea.
Moreover, the company develops unique technologies to self-assemble the NCC into ecologically friendly foams for industrial applications.
Melodea Ltd. announced today that it has been awarded above 1,000,000 Euro in 3 projects of the European Union Seventh Framework Program (FP7).
The first project BRIMEE aims to develop insulating boards to attach to the exterior and interior of old buildings walls to improve insulation and reduce energy consumption.
Melodea's ground breaking NCC foams will be the major constituent of such insulating boards.
The second project NCC-Foam aims to develop commercially-viable, lightweight, rigid foam core materials for sandwich structures for the composite industry.
Today, the common foams for composites are mostly manufactured from a variety of synthetic fossil-oil based polymers that have negative environmental effects compared to NCC based foam which is fully renewable produced from waste stream of the pulp and paper industry.
The third project FLHEA objective is to develop renewable and recyclable food packaging materials based on natural fibers such as flax and hemp. In FLHEA Melodea will produce flax based NCC that will be used as a strengthening agent for the novel bio-based packaging materials.
"It is an outstanding achievement for Melodea to be awarded 3 European research grants with exciting European partners. These grants prove the EU commitment to support the development of Nano cellulose applications," said Melodea's CEO Mr. Yoram Shkedi, "It will also allow Melodea to develop and to commercialize Nano Crystalline Cellulose (NCC) based applications for huge industries such as the construction, composites and food packaging industries."
Source: http://www.melodea.eu