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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Grass Paper (Grass Fibre as raw material for innovative Grass Paper products: the new economic and ecological resource for the European paper industry)

Teaser

Summary

With GRASPAP Grass Fibre Creapaper introduces a highly innovative, sustainable and cost-efficient alternative raw material for the European paper industry. About half of the 400 million tonnes paper produced worldwide every year are based on wood pulp. This consumes about 40% of the global industrial wood harvest. Moreover, transport and processing of the wood consume a lot of water, chemicals and energy. Costs and impact to nature are severe. Creapaper provides a unique solution to these problems by introducing Grass Fibres, produced by a novel patented mechanical process, as a new resource for the paper industry. This innovative material will reduce the raw material costs of paper mills by 50-70 % (compared to wood pulp) and is compatible to their standard production equipment. Grass Paper products made from these fibres are free of noxious substances, printable and have a distinctive sustainable, yet premium appearance. They are therefore very attractive for food and non-food packaging, tissue and print media applications. Several awards in the packaging industry and first orders from large, well-known brands confirm these USPs of Grass Paper products. While Creapaper\'s primary customers are paper mills, also brand owners and retailers are addressed. This increases the demand for Grass Paper and Grass Fibres rapidly and allows a fast scale-up in the European key markets. According to independent experts, the grass fibre material has the potential to become the paper industry\'s third raw material source besides wood pulp and wastepaper. Creapaper has commissioned the first grass fibre production line and will transfer the stationary production process into a versatile mobile solution during this project. This will decrease the dependence on weather conditions during the grass harvesting as well as allow the extraction and commercialisation of vegan proteins from the grass in the future, making the whole process even more sustainable and cost-efficient.

Work performed

Creapaper performed the specification, design and construction planning of the mobile resource module. In cooperation with a partner, the construction is now prepared. During this work, the feasibility of protein extraction was also examined and will be included into the resource module.
The work for commercialisation and dissemination of Grass Paper boosted the popularity of Grass Paper and led to a strong rise in demand for Grass Paper. On top of that, the market trend of increasing environmental awareness, and regulations in EU banning single-use plastics has a very positive impact on the market potential of Creapaper. In 2019, Creapaper was awarded the Red Herring Top 100 Awards Europe and North America. This proves the innovativeness and huge potential of Creapaper and Grass Paper. Furthermore, several paper manufacturers were won as customers, as well es many leading brand owners like Coca-Cola, REWE, ALDI, LIDL, DANONE, and DUNI realised projects and products with Creapaper using Grass Paper.

Final results

Already during the first project year, Creapaper could establish as THE company for Grass Paper and unique partner for retail, system gastronomy and brand owners to develop intelligent packaging solutions and help to stem the global plastic flood. To produce Grass Paper, sun-dried hay is prepared using our own patented process according to the requirements of the corresponding paper mill. With realisation of the mobile resource module, Creapaper will be able to process fresh grass by mechanical and thermal drying. Thereby, Creapaper is able to reduce the dependence on weather conditions during the grass harvesting as well as allow the extraction and commercialisation of vegan proteins from the grass in the future, making the whole process more sustainable and cost-efficient. With Grass Fibres as sustainable and cost-efficient raw material for the paper industry, Creapaper provides the third pillar besides wood pulp and recycled fibres. Grass Fibre is 50-70% cheaper than wood pulp, regionally available and by the novel patented mechanical process Creapaper only needs 2 litres water and 0.2 MWh energy per tonne Grass Fibre during production. In comparison: 2.2 tonnes wood, 9 tonnes water, 1.4 MWh energy and aggressive chemical treatments are necessary to produce 1 tonne virgin wood pulp.