© System 180

Lightweight furniture made of lignin

Ever heard of lignin? This by-product of the cellulose and paper industry has so far hardly been used. However, it could make the furniture of the future not only more lightweight and modular, but also highly recyclable. The material is being thoroughly tested in the LignoLight research project.

The furniture industry is facing a dual challenge: furniture needs to be flexible and modular, so that it is adaptable to changing living environments. And it should also be made of sustainable materials that are easily recyclable and thus environmentally-friendly. Current lightweighting concepts, however, are good at reducing weight, but often rely on composite materials that are hard to reuse.

At the same time, lignin, a by-product from the cellulose and paper industry, remains mostly unused and is usually incinerated. This is despite its specific characteristics and high levels of carbon sequestration that make this bio polymer a strong candidate for biobased materials. Researchers of the LignoLight project want to make use of this potential.

The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action has been providing funding for innovative lightweighting projects since April 2020 under its Technology Transfer Programme for Lightweighting (in German only). The funding programme supports the transition to a climate-neutral and competitive industrial sector.

Since mid-2023 and up until the end of April 2026, LignoLight project partners Fraunhofer WKI, Berlin Weißensee School of Art, TECNARO Gesellschaft zur industriellen Anwendung nachwachsender Rohstoffe mbH, LignoPure GmbH, Bingen Technical University of Applied Sciences, Comprise Tec GmbH, trippen A. Spieth, M. Oehler GmbH and System 180 GmbH are researching and testing this raw material down to the last molecule.

^{Lower weight reduces emissions from furniture transport} 

The project team want to develop modular lightweight furniture made from materials based on lignin. The objective is to develop thermal plastic lignin compounds, lignin-based foams and fully bio-based artificial leather that can be used to make furniture. These materials are to be designed for long-term CO₂ sequestration.

A modular construction will prolong the lifetime of the furniture, as damaged or outdated parts can be replaced. Also, the project team want to improve recyclability: the materials are to be cleanly separated so that they can be recycled for new products.

To make all this possible, different lignin-based materials are to be developed and tested, each with its own specific mechanical characteristics and properties for processing: e.g. thermal plastic lignin compounds comprising at least 40% lignin, which are to be optimised for use in 3D printers, for injection moulding, for extrusion and for thermoforming.

In addition to this, lignin-based foams with different degrees of firmness and a lignin content of up to 80% are being developed for use as core material for flat structures and for upholstering. Construction concepts designed for disassembly and cyclability are also part of the research project.

A collection system for used furniture is to ensure that the materials will end up being recycled. The materials and designs developed are being tested by the project team in a modular cabinet system and a piece of seating furniture, where the prototypes are being tested for industrial scalability.