Mondi Case Study: Fly Ash as feedstock to specialty materials

The challenger

Mondi is a global leader in packaging and paper, employing around 21,000 people at approximately 100 production sites across 30 countries, with key operations located in Europe, North America, and Africa.

Mondi´s purpose is to contribute to a better world by making packaging and paper that is sustainable by design.

Challenge

Mondi launched the challenge “Fly Ash as feedstock for specialty materials”.

They wanted to find a partner who could find value-added utilization of their fly ash in advanced materials and that could have a technology to compact it to improve its transport and handling at the customer.

Solution Provider

AC Biode is a company that upcycles ash, mineral waste, slurry, or sludge into adsorbents, through a process named “CircuLite”. CircuLite can be used in GHG capture, self-cooling concrete, soil improvement, filters, wastewater treatment, air purification, face masks, cleaning up oil spills, and more.

AC Biode solution is based on the CircuLite process, which has been already successfully implemented in Japan and Taiwan as well as received 10 other contracts in Thailand, Australia, Japan, Kazakhstan, etc. Mondi found that the technology offered by AC Biode had the potential to solve their issues about the handling and transportation of fly ash in an economically and sustainable way.

Solution Proposed

AC Biode presented a solution that was already proven in an operational environment. It upcycles ash, mineral waste, slurry, or sludge into absorbent or antibacterial materials, such as filters, soil improvement, wastewater treatment, GHG capture, captures oil from oil spills, and more.

Mondi and AC Biode counted with the support of BEST (Bioenergy and Sustainable Technologies GmbH) Technology Center. BEST provided a wide range of services to the project, which can be broadly divided into the categories of support to researchers and facilitating analytical laboratory testing equipment (for material characterization).

Conclusions

The collaboration took place between April and October 2022. CircuLite was successfully produced from Mondi’ s FABA (Fly Ash). BEST was able to analyze elemental contents, structural composition, particle size distribution, specific surface area and pore size distribution, and CO2 adsorption capacity in dry and wet atmospheres.

Through this project, it was demonstrated to Mondi that CircuLite can indeed be made from their FABA. Secondly, it was part demonstrated that Mondi can use CircuLite to purify their wastewater.

MONDI has appreciated the great support provided by PITCCH and the working style with AC Biode and BEST, both motivated and organized teams. Frequent meetings were organized to keep track of the progress. The products made with AC Biode’s technology and Mondi’s raw materials were compared to reference products available on the market, and the promising results obtained support Mondi’s path to a more sustainable future.