Exploring Pilot Production of Seaweed Leather

海藻皮革中试生产探索

• 批准号: 10025717
• 金额: $ 6.37万
• 依托单位: UNCOMMON ALCHEMY LTD
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10025717
• 关键词: Exploring; Pilot; Production; Seaweed; Leather

Uncommon Alchemy is developing a vegan alternative to leather made from seaweed. Seaweed leather aims to replace environmentally harmful animal and polyurethane leathers with an alternative made from renewable and regenerative resources that can fully biodegrade. This project will research and develop manufacturing processes to de-risk pilot production of the material and accelerate commercial scale up.Due to ethical and environmental concerns, the synthetic leather market is growing, but most vegan leathers are made from petrochemical plastics like polyurethane and PVC. These materials deplete fossil fuels and persist in the environment without biodegrading. Biobased leathers represent a growing market sector, but usually contain some petrochemical plastic content for binding or coating purposes. This means they are only partially biodegradable. Seaweed leather offers an innovative alternative as it contains no petrochemical plastics, is fully biodegradable and comes from raw materials that have an actively regenerative effect on the environment.Uncommon Alchemy's founder, Anna Watkins, is a current recipient of a Young Innovators Award 2020/21\. During the Young Innovators programme, Anna has made significant progress on developing seaweed leather, improving functionality and aesthetic properties, producing prototypes, and developing the business. She has presented seaweed leather on local and national scales, and engaged in role model activities to inspire and support her community. Anna won the Young Innovator of the Year Award 2021 from the Anjool Malde Memorial Trust for her progress during the programme.Follow On funding will enable Uncommon Alchemy to take a critical step forwards in the business and accelerate transition to pilot scale production of seaweed leather.

不同寻常的炼金术正在开发一种用海藻制成的皮革的素食替代品。海藻皮革旨在用一种由可再生和可完全生物降解的资源制成的替代品来取代对环境有害的动物和聚氨酯皮革。该项目将研究和开发制造工艺，以降低材料试生产的风险，并加快商业规模。出于道德和环境方面的考虑，合成革市场正在增长，但大多数素食皮革是由石油化工塑料制成的，如聚氨酯和聚氯乙烯。这些材料会消耗化石燃料，并在环境中持续存在，而不会被生物降解。生物基皮革代表着一个不断增长的市场领域，但通常含有一些石化塑料成分，用于粘合或涂层目的。这意味着它们只是部分可生物降解的。海藻皮革提供了一种创新的替代品，因为它不含石化塑料，完全可生物降解，来自对环境具有积极再生效果的原材料。非凡炼金术的创始人安娜·沃特金斯目前是2020/21年度青年创新者奖的获得者。在青年创新者计划期间，Anna在开发海藻皮革、改进功能和美学特性、生产原型和发展业务方面取得了重大进展。她在地方和全国范围内展示海藻皮革，并参与榜样活动，以激励和支持她的社区。安娜因其在项目中的进步而获得Anjool Malde纪念信托基金颁发的2021年年度青年创新者奖。后续资金将使非凡炼金术在业务上向前迈出关键的一步，并加快向海藻皮革中试规模生产的过渡。