As a side stream of beer brewing, the global brewing industry produces more than 40 million tonnes of spent grains every year. At the same time, there is a dire global need for sustainable plastic alternatives. VTT helped Finnish startup Granulous move from a concept to a final recipe for a biobased plastic alternative made from spent grains that is now ready to become the raw material of many everyday products.
Key facts
Industrial side stream turned into a compostable plastic alternative.
The new biomaterial has low CO2 emissions and can replace plastic in many applications.
VTT’s deep expertise in the topic enabled fast material development
Granulous is a Finnish startup that wants to replace plastic with a compostable biomaterial made from spent grains – a side stream of beer brewing. Their compostable biomaterial – also named Granulous – is now ready to replace plastic in many injection-moulded applications.
Brewing a great idea
As a side stream of beer brewing, the global brewing industry produces more than 40 million tonnes of spent grains yearly. Seeing the spent grains go to waste in many breweries across Finland, the founders of Granulous came up with the ground-breaking idea of turning the grains into something valuable: a raw material for a bio-based plastic alternative.
Every batch of beer contains various amounts of spent grains. In large breweries, the volume of spent grains produced per batch is huge, even tens of tonnes per day. A part of the grains is used in animal feed or burned into energy, but most of it is just wasted. “We saw an opportunity to cut costs in breweries and to reduce emissions and global reliance on virgin raw materials by upcycling this waste into something more valuable,” says Joonas Sirviö, co-founder and CEO of Granulous.
Granulous approached VTT with the idea of turning spent grains into a mouldable, biodegradable material. “We had a big vision of utilising brewery side streams, but we didn’t have knowledge on how to break down the material development into pieces. VTT’s lab-scale developments and testing of various material qualities and variations brought that missing element into our operation and brought the material to life,” Sirviö continues.
VTT’s experience in developing alternatives to plastic has been invaluable. Their communication has been clear and proposals spot on.
Material development expertise key to a quick project turnaround
Developing new materials is a complicated process, and there’s never a guarantee of success. “Material development normally takes years or even decades,” says Olli Leppänen, investor and mentor of Granulous. “We wanted to move much faster and to quickly validate if the idea had potential.”
“Granulous came to us with a novel fibrous material we hadn’t used before and a big goal of turning the material into compostable, food-safe bioplastic. The quick turnaround time for the project was only achievable because we have decades of experience and extensive knowledge in biocomposite processing, testing and analytics,” says Lisa Wikström, Research Team Leader of bioplastic, films, foams and biocomposite solutions at VTT.
To define the target properties needed for the new biomaterial, the team at VTT began by testing the mechanical properties of commercial toothbrushes and comparing different materials. Thanks to her long background in biopolymers, Senior Scientist Kirsi Immonen was able to quickly come up with a recipe that would produce the right properties and could be tested in injection moulding trials carried out at VTT’s own facilities. The tests showed promising results and led to eventual tests with different combinations of polymers to perfect the final recipe, which could then be tested at an industrial scale. “We made good first guesses, and the experts at our fermentation lab in Espoo gave us tips for fibre treatment that helped to fine-tune the recipe,” Immonen explains.
The result is Granulous – a brand-new compostable biomaterial with numerous potential applications. The material already has low lifetime CO2 emissions – up to four times lower than the CO2 emissions of fossil-based plastics and even lower than some bioplastics on the market. The emissions can be reduced close to zero through production efficiency as production scales up. Granulous has a natural look as you can still see some of the grains of the raw material. The material is home compostable but still durable enough for many purposes.
“There’s plenty of things we can intensify in our processes in the future,” says Sirviö.
What’s next for Granulous?
Granulous now has a winning formula for a revolutionary new material. Despite global challenges, the company has successfully closed its seed funding round to continue advancing both its material and business development.
With the support of new, outstanding partners, Granulous is entering the next phase, focusing on the forestry, gardening and agriculture markets. Viticulture products are also on the roadmap for future development.
“Our core material was just the beginning,” Sirviö states. “Now, it’s time to take things further by adding valuable features. For example, we’re combining the material’s existing strengths with added nutrients to create something new for gardening and forestry. Thanks to our strong partner network, we have a solid foundation to build on. There are many exciting projects underway, and we’re pushing full steam ahead. The planet needs sustainable materials, ones that don’t harm nature. We’re here for that.”
Granulous is also advancing its polymerisation process in partnership with VTT. The company will continue developing its own polymer made from the same grains used in its core material. This will help Granulous make full use of its raw material and expand its offering of sustainable products.
Sirviö is enthusiastic about the progress and especially about the partnership with VTT: “We’ve basically had VTT experts working as part of our team. Their communication has been clear and proposals spot on. VTT’s experience in developing alternatives to plastic has been invaluable.”
“I think the partnership helped Granulous focus on their strengths. They have a strong vision of what they want to achieve and have managed to create connections with many companies to scale up and test the materials,” Immonen concludes.
