The European Paper Industry currently experiences one of the most fundamental and far-reaching structural changes in its history. The shrinking demand for newsprint and magazine papers is just one though a very apparent evidence of this development. Other issues are the necessity to improve the whole industry’s energy and resources efficiency, improve and complement its product portfolio, and establish a much closer cooperation with other industries in order to jointly pave the way for real innovations of significant economic importance. In this context the paper industry should not underestimate the potential of their undisputed leadership in processing and modifying the most abundant organic polymers on earth: lignocellulosic biomass. Irrespective of the many applications outside the paper industry which have come up in the recent decades, the possibilities this raw material offers are anything but fully exploited. In fact the advantages of lignocellulosic fibres are obvious: they are biogenic, i. e. renewable and recyclable or at least biodegradable, they combine high strength with low density and their properties can easily be adapted to a broad variety of needs and special applications. This was the background against which the Professorship of Paper Technology of TU Dresden analyzed a number of production
technologies tried-and-tested in other industries - e.g. injection molding, pressure molding, extrusion and the like - in view of their transferability to the treatment of nanocellulosic or purely cellulosic raw materials or even fibrous residues from
papermaking.