Work Package 1
During the second period we improved/amended the concept for scale-up (from brownfield to conversion of operating a paper mill through acquisition). Current the investment financing negotiations are on-going, but we aim to finalise it during summer 2019. Changing the concept of course meant a delay in reaching the project goals but in a long-term view, we believe that the change was for the best and we can achieve even bigger goals than anticipated. The pre-engineering project for the re-build is also on-going and is finalized in June. The project is planned to be realized during 2019 and 2020, to reach annual capacity of over 40 000 tn / year (4x higher than original plan).
Many known companies have started collaborating with us and are now using PAPTIC® bags as a reusable alternative to their plastic and paper bags. These bags are examples from the application based on the production from our small pilot line and our subcontracting based manufacturing (developed also during the project to remediate the project delay from customer point of view).
Work Package 2
During the second period we demonstrated the energy efficiency and lower water consumption of the foam forming technology through trials at the existing pilot line and by out-source testing. The results are already at the target level set for the PAPTIC project, but work will be continued further towards the goal of 100% renewable PAPTIC product.
Work Package 3
During the second year, we tested the recyclability of PAPTIC® material at PTS and WMU. PAPTIC® material has also been certified according to PEFC and FSC certificates. Both certificates cover the production, sales and marketing of PAPTIC® material.
With more resources in sales, marketing and business development the activity in customer interface has been doubled during the project. And thus we have sent hundreds of samples to customers and recently more attention on brochures and other printed communication has been paid. We have updated our website and launched the “PAPTIC blog”, which we have established to create more traffic to our site. We have had representatives in several trade shows and had our own stand in the Luxepack –exhibition in Monaco in October and in Empack packaging expo in Helsinki Finland. We have participated in different types of sustainability-related competitions and have been nominated for example as the “Biobased Product of the Year” in June at the Bio-based Live conference in Amsterdam by a jury of industrial experts. In addition, Paptic has been awarded by Biobased Conference, European Paper Recycling conference and ExpoLive organizations and events. We have started an update of Paptic IPR-strategy. Paptic patent portfolio has been strengthed by filing new patent applications and national patent applications and filing six invention disclosures.
Work Package 4
By the end of the second period, we have changed the scale-up concept to accommodate market and financing requirements. We submitted two amendments during the second year of the project and they were both approved. However, all dissemination and communication activities have been on track and most R&D has also been carried out as planned.
