BioProt project set out to develop novel bio-based solutions as future alternatives for safe and sustainable personal protection

Co-funded by Business Finland, the BioProt project (Development of bio-based and antimicrobial nonwoven materials and use as protective equipment) brought together six leading Finnish universities and research institutes, four companies with their own parallel projects as well as five in-kind project partners to develop high-quality, safe and sustainable face masks triggered by the dramatic increase in the need of personal protection equipment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The overarching goals of the BioProt consortium were to seek for more sustainable and renewable bio-based solutions for face masks, in addition to exploring most feasible future pathways for alleviating Europe’s underlying heavy reliance on imported personal protection equipment from countries such as China.

ExpandFibre team was joined by BioProt Project Manager Krista Koljonen, Post Doctoral Researcher at LUT University, Susanna Tella, Leader of BioProt WP4 and Chief Specialist RDI at LAB University of Applied Sciences, and Satu Salo, Leader of BioProt WP2 and Senior Scientist at VTT, to discuss the project and its main outcomes from the perspective of a research partner. In addition, four representatives from the industry kindly shared their insights on the project and its key outcomes - Tuomas Kiikka, New Business Development Director at Premix Oy, Pasi Virtanen, Head of Innovation at Teknos, Mira Juutilainen, Research and Development Manager at Teknikum Group Ltd, and Janette Mäkipää, Product Development Director at Lifa Air Plc.

BioProt project and its partners were tightly dedicated to achieving more sustainable and responsible manufacturing of respiratory protective equipment in Europe by 2030. Self-sufficiency was a key element of the project – specifically the self-sufficiency in procuring materials, as well as manufacturing raw materials and nonwovens for respirators and surgical face masks. Placing special emphasis on sustainability, the project promoted the use of bio-based materials for protective equipment, helping to decrease Europe’s reliance on imported fossil-based raw materials. Significant development was also achieved in the design of a novel face mask type utilizing a new filtration technology, enabling a lower respiratory resistance for an increased comfort of use. The project also explored a manufacturing processes enabling the reuse of respirators and raw materials, thereby significantly reducing waste in comparison to single-use protective equipment. To enhance the functionality of the protective equipment further, BioProt project explored the possibility to introduce added antiviral functionality to face masks. Additionally, the project prioritized well-being and safety by developing higher quality materials for respirators, incorporating user-oriented design, and improving situational awareness. The added value of the products developed during BioProt lies in their new technological solutions and features, which are envisioned to be brought to the market through a service-based business model.

Reflections from the research partners

Krista kicked off the discussion by first thanking the participants of the project’s final seminar event that was organized at the LUT University campus in Lappeenranta on May 23^rd, 2024. Krista continued to reflect on the first steps of the project: “In a nutshell, the then emerging COVID-19 pandemic and the constantly growing worry on Finland’s self-sufficiency in procuring protective equipment, primarily face masks for personal protection of citizens and for professional use at hospitals, were the main kicking-off points for BioProt. In fact, three separate but similarly themed Business Finland funded Co-creation projects were merged together to form the Co-innovation project BioProt. The research partners behind these three merged projects joined forces with four industrial partners, each having their own parallel project, and five in-kind partners, of which HUS and Mehiläinen were especially active during BioProt.”

Susanna continued on the building of the BioProt consortium: “In the spring of 2020, it became evident that respiratory protective equipment were in danger of running out in Finland as the COVID-19 pandemic worsened day by day. Katri Laatikainen from the Finnish Defence Research Agency and LUT University was in a central role in setting up a national emergency supply project for hydrogen peroxide based decontamination treatment for face masks. This initiative was central in gathering key actors together in Finland to work on the topic. In addition, there was another initiative focused on cleaning up of the pipette heads, the supply of which was also dramatically impacted by the pandemic. In hindsight, it is also noteworthy how effectively both Finland and Sweden were actively exchanging best practices during the early stages of the pandemic. Also, Samantha Kiljunen from LUT University had an instrumental role in engaging companies for the formed BioProt project.”

Looking back four years later to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020 brought back a lot of memories for Krista, Susanna and Satu. “In a single month, we were able to complete work that would have normally taken perhaps even years in contacting all the key national players around the theme of face masks and protective equipment. Looking back the enthusiasm and the drive of everyone involved was absolutely amazing. Also, companies were very motivated to take part and prioritized the work related to BioProt. You have to remember that running completely out of protective equipment was a very real threat in Finland back then,” as Susanna recalled.

Satu continued: “In such a uniquely challenging situation, the ambition level of people was record high and everyone wanted desperately to contribute. For example, we prepared the funding application for the first face mask cleaning project very quickly and found highly effective ways of working with the ministry granting the funding.”

Krista shared her most vivid memory: “I took part in a seminar organized at HUS, where an emergency nurse shared her daily experiences of working with patients affected by COVID-19. On a day-to-day basis, the nurse was forced to live in complete uncertainty of protective equipment being available in sufficient quantities. At that moment I knew that something had to be done to improve the situation.”

Insights from the industry

Pasi Virtanen from Teknos recalled the company’s motivation to join the initiative: “As the project was in preparation, we at Teknos were scouting for new business opportunities within coatings for fiber surfaces, as we already had been active in selected hygiene coating applications. Also, the regulatory environment as a whole for paints and coatings within the EU was and remains challenging to grasp, so the learnings from projects such as BioProt were highly valuable for us.”

Tuomas Kiikka from Premix continued: “We at Premix did a lot of collaboration and studies with University of Jyväskylä (JyU) during COVID-19 on the antiviral properties of the pine tree-based rosin at the heart of our PREXELENT® products. With JyU, we were able to verify that rosin in fact effectively destroys the structure of coronaviruses, but according to the studies, the effectiveness is largely dictated by the composition of the plastic used together with the antiviral rosin component. In the end, the most important learning for us was that the face mask manufacturers did not see significant added value from the addition of an antiviral component, which caused us to pivot our focus back to agricultural applications, where antiviral functionality was seen as having great potential and brining real added value. Funnily enough, agriculture was our initial focus area with our antiviral technology, but understandably the COVID-19 pandemic shifted our focus temporarily towards personal protection.”

Mira Juutilainen from Teknikum recalled the highlights of the project: “We jumped into the project preparation as it was ongoing with our main driver for joining being able to take part in a face mask-focused initiative. We were also very interested in learning more about bio-based raw materials and solutions in the context of face masks, as Teknikum products have traditionally been largely based on synthetic materials. Our target was to develop an innovative face mask design prototype with 60% bio-based content geared towards industrial use with a long-term target of expanding the learnings of BioProt also towards other protective equipment and different use areas.”

Janette Mäkipää from Lifa Air reflected on the project: “BioProt project was highly interesting and relevant for us from the very start. With the advancing of the COVID-19 pandemic in Finland, we decided to set up a factory for the production of face masks in Finland. For us, environmental and sustainability related issues were at the forefront of our focus – in addition to product quality and safety of use. For example, cheap face masks produced in China were highly competitive in terms of their pricing, but we at Lifa Air focused on producing more environmentally responsible high-quality end products that were also safe to use. The antiviral component for a single-use face mask was an interesting development during the project, but our analysis concluded that the end user most likely would not be ready to pay the extra cost of the added antiviral effect for a product that is only designed to be used for a very short time, as already mentioned by Tuomas.”

Janette continued on the challenges related to setting up a face mask factory in Finland: “We had no prior experience of producing face masks in Finland, although we had been involved in a joint initiative in China for the production of face masks already prior to COVID-19. In February or March of 2020 we made the decision to invest into a new factory and already in May 2020 the production units were in place at our Espoo site, with first face masks being produced in mid-May. One of the most challenging parts of the factory investment was the certification process, which took a lot of time and effort due to COVID-19 restrictions. In addition, launching a new product is very expensive due to the complex regulatory landscape and the aforementioned certification processes. You have to be extremely careful in your claims when you are planning added functionalities, such as antiviral components, into your end product.”

Challenges related to the certification and the regulatory landscape of novel bio-based products were recognised by all industry representatives. Pasi Virtanen noted: “From my perspective regulation has not eased at all but become perhaps even stricter. For example, skin contact materials are particularly challenging. If in your R&D process you come across a novel functional ingredient that has antiviral properties and if it’s already in use in cosmetics or in the food industry, it’s still very expensive and time consuming to have it certified for use in coatings. In addition, we have noticed that certain chemical suppliers have been forced to withdraw their products from the market as the certification processes have become too costly and/or cumbersome.”

Tuomas Kiikka continued on the topic: ”From our side, the major challenges have been focusing on the biocide regulation. You are not allowed to claim anything as being antimicrobial or antiviral unless it contains biocides. Thus, we have been forced to only present research results that support the claim of antiviral functionality of our product, for example. At one stage we were even thinking of an antimicrobial glove, but quickly came to the conclusion that market access with such a product is highly challenging if you cannot claim the antimicrobial effect of the product without the use of biocides.”

All partners agreed that being part of the BioProt consortium was highly beneficial. Although actual commercial products will need a lot of additional development and their market entry might be still very much in the future, it was valuable to follow the testing of various materials as well as be at the forefront of the scientific advancements made during the project. Having the entire value chain involved in the project from researchers all the way to end users was seen as highly valuable. Also, all industrial partners stressed the importance of activity in collaborative projects as BioProt, as noted by Janette Mäkipää: “To maximize the benefit of participating in such a project, you really have to be active on multiple levels. In addition to actively advancing your own parallel company project, you also have to be an active contributor in the public research project.”  

Next steps

All interviewed research partners agreed that overall the project was highly successful in gathering key actors together to work on a challenging common goal during particularly stressful and uncertain times on a global scale, as Krista Koljonen summarised her thoughts: “I feel we were highly successful, perhaps most importantly in creating vital connections among the project participants while keeping a highly positive outlook for the future. As a consortium we learned so much fundamental information on personal protection, specifically about face masks, but the question remains – are we ready to produce them in sufficient amounts for the next pandemic?”

Satu Salo continued: ”We really have to process the key learnings from the COVID-19 years and use them for best practices and most feasible solutions for future challenges ahead, so that we are much better prepared for whatever is to come next.”

From a European legislative viewpoint single-use face masks may take a backseat, as more emphasis is most likely placed on reusable protection equipment. This will understandably place special requirements on effective cleaning schemes to ensure the safety and cleanliness of recycled and reused protective equipment, as Susanna Tella concluded: “Hospitals and medical professionals have robust cleaning schemes in place, but how about ensuring the safety of the general public? This remains a major challenge also for the future.”

BioProt project fact sheet

Project website: https://www.lut.fi/en/bioprot
Project budget: €5.2 million with 60% funding provided by Business Finland
Project timeline: 1.1.2022 – 30.6.2024
Project partners:

- Research institutes: VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, LUT University (coordinator), LAB University of Applied Science, University of Jyväskylä, Natural Resources Institute Finland LUKE, and University of Helsinki.

- Companies: Lifa Air, Premix, Teknikum, and Teknos.

Photo credit: BioProt