{"id":169921,"date":"2025-11-06T07:20:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T06:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=169921"},"modified":"2025-10-31T13:52:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T12:52:50","slug":"case-granulous-upcycling-spent-grains-to-compostable-bioplastics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/case-granulous-upcycling-spent-grains-to-compostable-bioplastics\/","title":{"rendered":"Case: Granulous \u2013 Upcycling spent grains to compostable bioplastics\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\"\"
\u00a9 Granulous<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Key facts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • Industrial side stream turned into a compostable plastic alternative.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The new biomaterial has low CO2<\/sub>\u00a0emissions and can replace plastic in many applications.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • VTT\u2019s deep expertise in the topic enabled fast material development<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    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.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Granulous is a Finnish startup that wants to replace plastic with a compostable biomaterial made from spent grains \u2013 a side stream of beer brewing. Their compostable biomaterial \u2013 also named Granulous \u2013 is now ready to replace plastic in many injection-moulded applications.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Brewing a great idea<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    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.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    \u201cWe 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,\u201d says\u00a0Joonas Sirvi\u00f6<\/strong>, co-founder and CEO of Granulous<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    Granulous approached VTT with the idea of turning spent grains into a mouldable, biodegradable material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    \u201cWe had a big vision of utilising brewery side streams, but we didn\u2019t have knowledge on how to break down the material development into pieces. VTT\u2019s lab-scale developments and testing of various material qualities and variations\u00a0brought that missing element into our\u00a0operation\u00a0and brought the material to life,\u201d Sirvi\u00f6<\/strong> continues.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    Material development expertise key to a quick project turnaround<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    <\/div>\n\n\n
    \n
    \"\"
    \u00a9 Granulous<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

    Developing new materials is a complicated process, and there\u2019s never a guarantee of success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    \u201cMaterial development normally takes years or even decades,\u201d says\u00a0Olli Lepp\u00e4nen<\/strong>, investor and mentor of Granulous.<\/strong> \u201cWe wanted to move much faster and to quickly validate if the idea had potential.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cGranulous came to us with a novel fibrous material we hadn\u2019t 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,\u201d says\u00a0Lisa Wikstr\u00f6m<\/strong>, Research Team Leader of bioplastic, films, foams and biocomposite solutions at VTT<\/strong>. \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    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\u00a0Kirsi Immonen<\/strong>\u00a0was 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\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    \u201cWe 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,\u201d Immonen<\/strong> explains.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    The result is Granulous \u2013 a brand-new compostable biomaterial with numerous potential applications. The material already has low lifetime CO2<\/sub> emissions \u2013 up to four times lower than the CO2<\/sub> 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    \u201cThere\u2019s plenty of things we can intensify in our processes in the future,\u201d says Sirvi\u00f6<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    What\u2019s next for Granulous? <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    \u201cOur core material was just the beginning,\u201d Sirvi\u00f6<\/strong> states. \u201cNow, it\u2019s time to take things further by adding valuable features. For example, we\u2019re combining the material\u2019s 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\u2019re pushing full steam ahead. The planet needs sustainable materials, ones that don\u2019t harm nature. We\u2019re here for that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    Sirvi\u00f6<\/strong> is enthusiastic about the progress and especially about the partnership with VTT: \u201cWe\u2019ve basically had VTT experts working as part of our team. Their communication has been clear and proposals spot on. VTT\u2019s experience in developing alternatives to plastic has been invaluable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cI 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,\u201d Immonen<\/strong> concludes.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Key facts 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":169936,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"VTT helped Finnish startup Granulous move from a concept to a final recipe for a biobased plastic alternative made from spent grains from the global brewing industry","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[16380,11286,5838,13442,5847,6026,16735,12239,13987,25998],"supplier":[27154,459],"class_list":["post-169921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-biobased","tag-biocomposites","tag-bioeconomy","tag-biomaterial","tag-bioplastics","tag-biopolymers","tag-biowaste","tag-compostability","tag-injectionmolding","tag-sidestreams","supplier-granulous","supplier-vtt-technical-research-centre-of-finland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169921"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=169921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}