Team:Edinburgh/Human Practices/Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship
Problem
The main problems that our SuperGrinder aims to tackle are improving on the current conventional methods for conversion of insoluble wastes to valuable products. The current methods are very disadvantageous as they often require extreme physical/chemical conditions, resulting in high energy loss, lower yield and overall lower sustainability. The current recycling methods result in the production of materials that are of low value making it less economically feasible to apply them for re-utilisation of the initial raw materials (chitin, keratin, PET, cellulose) unless there are specific policies in place to penalise waste/landfill and incentivise waste producers to search for other options.
Solution
We aim to create a SuperGrinder that will use enzymes immobilized onto beads for the processing of insoluble materials such as chitin, keratin, cellulose and PET. Enzymes are sustainable as they are reusable where there is no waste. Our product will make recycling much easier and support the concept of a circular bioeconomy, as we would yield higher value products, following the processing of raw materials.
Market analysis: case study with Chitin
To fuel the circular bioeconomy, we plan to use the resulting products of the grinding process to create materials of higher value. One example for the usage of the super grinder is the extraction of chitin, as mentioned previously. Chitin could be deacetylated to make chitosan. Chitosan is used extensively in many industries such as cosmetics, food and textiles. However, in order to approximate the market size, we will focus on the cosmetics industry as our potential customers. Chitosan, chitin and their derivatives are often used in skincare cosmetics because of their antioxidant, cleansing and protecting features. The current market size for skincare products is estimated to be 155 billion dollars and is predicted to reach 183.03 billion dollars by 2025 [1]. A more comprehensive breakdown of sales in each country is shown in Figure 1. Moreover, sales of skincare products grew by 13% last year in the United States solely [2]. Such exponential growth presents a great opportunity for exposure. Additionally, industry trends show that consumers are more likely to be aware of the environmental impact of the products they use. Sales of companies such as Aveeno, that claim to be sustainable and using natural products have had sales growth of 25%. Considering the fact that our final product offers a more sustainable solution to current practices, it is fair to say that our super grinder is easily adaptable to various consumer demands.
Our business model would be to sell chitosan or environmentally friendly extracted chitin to major skincare companies within the industry. Our main clients could be Beiersdorf AG, CHANEL Ltd, Groupe Clarins. Our main goal is to promote the sustainability of our process compared to mechanical extraction methods used by competitors. We believe that companies would collaborate willingly as sustainability is often a key value of big corporations and more importantly it is very important for customers as shown by recent trends.
Figure 1 Skincare market distribution across different countries. Source: Mintel.
Industry analysis: case study with chitin
Besides the market analysis of chitin, we also used a database called VentureRadar to conduct the following industry analysis.
In the United Kingdom, The Shell Works, Cuantec, PENNOG LIMITED are three companies who deal with chitin waste.
For Cuantec, they adopt waste from the shellfish industry to extract pure, high-quality chitin to be used in the packaging industry through their gentle biological process [3]. This matches the concept of zero waste, a circular process. Likewise, The Shell Works also sell packaging products using a material called “Vivomer” [4]. This is made up of vegan, compostable material and friendly microbes [4]. This was designed to degrade in any natural environment without causing anything harmful [4].
Regarding the former stakeholder engagement, we have also tried to find some possible companies who provide the suggestion service for turning waste into products having commercial benefits. PENNOG LIMITED is a company who offers advice and technology to help business owners and operators to transform waste into marketable resources [5]. In terms of sustainable products, they list chitin and chitosan as one of their options. Chitin has lots of beneficial properties like healing properties which can be applied in wound healing treatment [5]. It is commercially under-exploited.
Quite a few companies have either products or services helping deal with the chitin waste, but more work, either industry-applicable or fundamental, is essential. Our SuperGrinder design is a fundamental-aspect idea which can be further applied to industry.