Beyond Plastic: How Kadant Lamort's Microfibrillated Cellulose Coatings Redefine Barrier Performance in Packaging
Every minute, the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic is dumped into our oceans, a sobering reality that haunts our collective conscience as we unbox our everyday purchases. What if the very packaging protecting our products could also protect our planet? This vision is quickly becoming a reality, driven by a growing demand for sustainable packaging. Around the world, consumers and companies are seeking plastic-free solutions that don’t compromise performance or cost. Packaging manufacturers feel the pressure from new laws banning single-use plastics to ambitious corporate sustainability pledges.
An unassuming plant fiber, microfibrillated cellulose (MFC), commercially known by Kadant as BioFiber, is transforming paper packaging into a high-performance and eco-friendly solution. In this blog, we’ll explore how BioFiber (MFC coatings) are redefining sustainable packaging by combining superior barrier properties with circular economy principles, reducing the industry’s dependence on plastic.
The Urgent Need for Plastic-Free Packaging
The packaging industry is under pressure. With over 90 countries banning plastic bags and the EU targeting single-use plastics, regulations are tightening. At the same time, consumers increasingly demand eco-friendly alternatives and are willing to pay for them.
The sustainable packaging market is booming, set to grow from $293 billion in 2024 to $424 billion by 2029, driven by stricter laws and rising environmental awareness. By 2025, over 40% of companies plan to shift to sustainable packaging as part of a move toward the circular economy.
Rising costs of virgin plastics, mounting waste disposal issues, and corporate sustainability goals are all converging to push the industry forward.
The Key Drivers:
- Regulations: Plastic bans and taxes demand material innovation.
- Sustainability Goals: Brands are committing to recyclable and compostable packaging.
- Consumer Expectations: Green packaging now influences loyalty and purchase decisions.
- Cost Pressures: Virgin plastics are expensive; recycled or upcycled fibers offer value, if refined effectively.
This urgency is creating space for smart, fiber-based alternatives that perform like plastic, but without the environmental cost.
Microfibrillated Cellulose: Nature’s High-Performance Fiber
Microfibrillated cellulose (MFC), also known as BioFiber, is exactly what it sounds like, plant-based cellulose refined into microscopic fibrils. These tiny fibers form a dense, web-like structure that’s incredibly strong and versatile. What makes BioFiber especially powerful is its source, which can be produced not only from virgin pulp but also from paper mill waste like pulp sludge and fines, turning byproducts into high-value material.
Once refined, BioFiber enhances paper by boosting strength, improving surface finish, and adding barrier properties critical for packaging. It acts as a natural binder and reinforcement, filling gaps between fibers and creating tighter, more resilient paper structures.
More importantly, BioFiber can replace plastic in many packaging applications. Cellulose coatings made with BioFiber provide excellent resistance to oxygen, oil, and grease, functions traditionally handled by plastic films or laminates. This opens the door to plastic-free solutions like food trays, paper cups, and wrappers that are fully biodegradable or recyclable. It’s already being explored as a cost-effective option for food-grade packaging, filtration sheets, and specialty papers.
Raising the Bar on Paper Performance
Traditional paper has limitations such as struggles with moisture, grease, and oxygen exposure. That’s why plastics or wax coatings have long been the fallback. But MFC changes that, elevating paper’s capabilities from within.
Applied as a thin film or coating, BioFiber creates an ultra-dense network that blocks even the smallest molecules. Studies by Borregaard show that pure MFC films offer oxygen permeability as low as 2.3 cc/m²/day, outperforming common bioplastics like PLA by a wide margin. It also acts as a strong oil and grease barrier, ideal for food packaging.
This means BioFiber-coated paper can keep snacks fresh, resist oily stains, and maintain structural integrity, all while being compostable and plastic-free. Beyond barriers, MFC also reinforces packaging with better tensile and burst strength, often removing the need for plastic support layers.
In essence, BioFiber enables fiber-based packaging that doesn’t compromise on performance. And because it's made entirely of cellulose, it fits cleanly into recycling or composting systems, solving a major challenge of mixed-material waste.
Kadant’s Quad Hydradisc: Enabling the MFC Revolution
If BioFiber sounds almost too good to be true, there is a catch: producing microfiberillated cellulose in large quantities and at low cost has historically been a challenge. Refining wood fibers down to the micro scale typically requires intense mechanical processing (high energy, specialized equipment) and know-how to get the right quality.
At the heart of Kadant’s breakthrough is the Quad Hydradisc refiner, a high-efficiency, multi-disc system designed specifically for MFC. Unlike traditional dual-disc refiners, this machine delivers twice the refining capacity, achieving high-degree fibrillation in fewer passes, saving time, energy, and cost.
What sets it apart is not just power, but precision. The Quad Hydradisc offers fully automated control over refining pressure and disc gaps, producing consistent, high-quality MFC with significantly lower energy consumption. This is critical because traditional MFC production is energy-intensive, undermining its sustainability benefits. Kadant’s solution makes MFC truly viable at an industrial scale.
The system is also highly versatile. Whether you’re working with virgin pulp, recycled fiber, or even formerly discarded sludge, Kadant’s refiner adapts. It supports a wide range of grades (white or brown, short or long fiber) and helps mills extract maximum value from existing resources.
More than just equipment, Kadant brings decades of expertise in fiber processing. Our teams partner with clients to develop custom refining recipes, run proof-of-concept trials, and integrate BioFiber (MFC) seamlessly into production. It’s a complete platform for scaling sustainable innovation, built on real-world results.
Sources:
- https://meyers.com/meyers-blog/sustainable_packaging_statistics_2025
- https://www.solinatra.com/news/plastic-bans-around-the-world
- https://www.packagingtechtoday.com/materials/films-coatings/barrier-breakthroughs-the-future-of-molded-fiber-products-and-environmental-sustainability
- https://www.borregaard.com/insights/why-the-barrier-properties-of-mfc-may-influence-the-taste-of-your-coffee
About the Author
Utkarsh Agarwal
Global Marketing Manager (Kadant Lamort)
Kadant India Pvt. Ltd.
About Kadant
Kadant is a global supplier of technologies and engineered systems that drive Sustainable Industrial Processing®. Kadant is based in Westford, Massachusetts, with approximately 3,500 employees in 20 countries worldwide. For more information, visit kadant.com.
