At the Sprind Challenge “Circular Biomanufacturing” The aim is to develop new biotechnological processes for the extraction of raw materials from waste and residues and their subsequent, integrated processing. This is intended to advance the transition to a circular economy. Biotechnological processes are assigned a key role in this process. They are intended to be able to convert waste products into valuable raw materials with relatively low energy and material input.
A total of eight startups have now been selected for the challenge, whose research and development will receive funding. Launched on November 1st, the challenge has a total budget of 40 million euros for its three-year duration. In the first phase, which lasts one year, each startup will receive 1.5 million euros from the pot. The teams will also be supported and advised by Sprind, and connected with other experts. After one and two years, the jury will evaluate the development progress and decide which teams will receive further funding.
Jano Costard, Challenge Officer at Sprind, explains:
"The Sprind Challenge Circular Biomanufacturing aims to develop an end-to-end prototype that continuously processes various carbon-containing waste streams, feeds microbes as food, and directly processes the resulting synthesis products into an intermediate or final product. The goal is to establish new value chains based on locally available secondary raw materials. This will create a completely closed, sustainable, environmentally friendly, and market-resistant circular economy."
Among the eight selected startups are two young companies from Munich: Insempra and Global Sustainable Transformation GST.
Insempra
The Biotreasure team from Insempra Using a special yeast, they produce materials such as polyester and polyamide from plant residues, used cooking oil, or PET waste. These materials have previously only been produced petrochemically. The team thus covers two classes of plastics that are extremely versatile in their chemical composition and potential applications and are present in almost all everyday products. Furthermore, the scientists led by CEO and founder Jens Klein are able to produce protein fibers that exhibit excellent properties for use in the textile industry and other applications.
Global Sustainable Transformation GST
The TUM spinoff Global Sustainable Transformation GST uses yeast to produce fats and long-chain hydrocarbons to create various technically interesting, some even edible, polymers. In the long term, other waste streams such as agricultural, bioenergy, and food waste will also serve as a basis for this. To accommodate this flexibility, the CircuMat-3D team led by Dr. Mahmoud Masri has developed a particularly versatile and sustainable fermentation platform. The fermentation process itself is designed to produce virtually no unused side streams or waste streams.
