Valmet Sustainable Pulping Award given for two thesis covering biobased packaging development

Valmet Sustainable Pulping Award is awarded for a distinguished master's or doctoral thesis in the field of forest and related industries. The topic of the thesis may be related to: chemical or mechanical wood pulping processes, chemical wood processing side streams and recovery processes, wood-based micro- or nanocellulose processes, or practical applications of the above-mentioned processes. This year the Valmet Sustainable Pulping Award was given out to Sahar Babaeipou, from Aalto University, and Anni Häyrinen, from  LUT University.

Both of this years awardees covered the topics of sustainable packaging in their thesis works. Olli Tuovinen, Development Manager at Valmet’s Packaging and Paper business area, handed out the shared EUR 5,000 award at the gala event in Helsinki.

Sahar Babeipou received the award for her Doctoral thesis “Development of biobased coatings incorporating lignin nanoparticles for packaging and textile applications”, which she dedfended in May at the Aalto University School of Chemical Engineering, Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems.

Her doctoral thesis addresses the environmental challenge of the use of fossil based plastics in packaging and textiles while the cellulose-based materials such as paper, board, and cotton offer a renewable alternative but lack sufficient resistance to moisture. In her work she has worked on developing fully bio-based coatings that enhance performance while maintaining recyclability. Her study focuses on lignin and explores its use in the form of lignin nanoparticles as a functional coating component. The main objective was to design simple and scalable coating systems for cellulose-based materials, with applications in both packaging and textiles, while considering industrial adaptability and circular material design.

Anni Häyrinen received the award for her Master’s thesis Fibre-based gradient structures. She graduated from the LUT University in 2025. In her work she explored the use of fiber gradient structures combining softwood (SW) and hardwood (HW) fibers, and whether they can help maintain strength while reducing raw material costs, thereby enhancing the viability of molded fiber products as sustainable alternative to conventional plastic-based packaging. Her findings support the transition toward environmentally responsible packaging that would meet both functional and economic demands.