Dankook University Professor Lee Chilwon Develops Eco-Friendly Food Packaging Coating Technology

Published 15 Jul.2024 14:22(KST)

Updated 30 Jul.2025 09:24(KST)

Paper Recycling Rate Raised to 99.7%

Professor Lee Chilwon's research team at Dankook University has succeeded in developing eco-friendly food packaging coating technology.

Dankook University announced on the 15th that Professor Lee Chilwon's research team has developed an eco-friendly paper packaging material by coating paper with PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) to overcome the shortcomings of conventional paper packaging.

Although PVA has been known to effectively block gases such as oxygen, it has the drawback of dissolving easily in water. However, the research team developed a coating agent that hardens quickly and is resistant to water by applying polymer modification technology and metal ions to PVA.

The coating agent developed by the research team demonstrated high oxygen and moisture barrier effects and raised the paper recycling rate to 99.7%. In addition, it exhibited 91.8% biodegradability when composted, thereby improving the disadvantages of conventional paper packaging materials.

The newly developed coating technology has been transferred to EEMC Co., Ltd., a technology holding company of Dankook University. EEMC Co., Ltd. is continuing research for product commercialization based on this technology and plans to introduce prototype packaging materials for frozen and refrigerated products, with verification to be completed by the second half of this year.

Professor Lee Chilwon said, "The technology developed this time can be applied not only to food packaging but also to various packaging fields," and added, "We expect this research to become an important milestone in the development of eco-friendly and recyclable food packaging materials."

Meanwhile, this study, with Professor Lee as the corresponding author, was published in the June issue of the food engineering journal 'Food Packaging and Shelf Life (IF: 8.0)'.