Material, process and development of a novel composite, layered, plastic-free leather alternative derived from waste brewery grain

该应用的重点是开发可持续生产的皮革替代品。我们今天消费的皮革是与畜牧业相关的一长串碳密集步骤的最终结果，包括动物饲养，皮革收获，鞣制和加工。一种可持续的皮革替代品，消除了对畜牧业的需求，除了对动物福利产生明显影响外，还将对气候变化做出重大贡献。申请人是一家最近成立的公司，该公司正在将令人兴奋的研究商业化，该研究表明，有可能从啤酒酿造产生的废谷物中生产合成皮革-一种通常用作低价值动物饲料的副产品。这实际上是从现有的和普遍存在的工业过程（即，啤酒厂的酒糟），省略了“动物生长阶段”，生产出一种合成皮革。通过省略动物生长阶段，这种合成皮革的碳足迹估计仅为传统皮革的0.3%。Arda团队已经进行了第一阶段的概念验证研究，他们已经能够从废弃的酿酒谷物中生产出合成革的小样品。这种材料看起来像普通的皮革，但强度不够，无法制成功能性服装或产品。关键是这种材料缺乏天然皮革的拉伸或纤维强度。Arda的目标是扩大我们的研究范围，并开发一种工艺，将非常精细的可持续性生产的蛋白质纤维引入这种合成革的层中。这将具有增强皮革强度的实质性好处，同时不会减少材料的可持续来源。如果企业能够以这种方式加强合成革，并扩大生产规模，Arda已经有啤酒厂供应商和时尚客户等待成为这种新材料供应链的一部分。所附的资金申请主要用于开发、扩展和评估这种“复合”合成皮革性能所需的工业研究计划。

This application is focused on the development of a sustainably produced leather alternative. The leather we consume today is the net result of a long chain of carbon intensive steps associated with animal agriculture, including animal rearing, leather harvesting, tanning, and processing. A sustainable leather alternative that removes the need for animal agriculture would make a significant contribution to climate change in addition to having a clear impact on animal welfare. The applicants are a recently formed company that is commercialising exciting research that has shown that it is possible to produce synthetic leather from the waste grain produced from beer brewing --- a by-product that is typically used as low value animal feed. This in effect takes a waste material from an existing and ubiquitous industrial process (i.e., the brewer's spent grain), omits the 'growing of the animal stage' and produces a synthetic leather. By omitting the animal growth phase this synthetic leather is estimated to have only 0.3% of the carbon footprint than conventional leathers have. The Arda team has conducted the first stage of proof of concept research and they've been able to produce small samples of synthetic leather from the waste brewing grain. The material looks like normal leather but it's not sufficiently strong enough to be made into functional clothing or products. Crucially the material lacks the tensile or fibrous strength of natural leathers. Arda aim is to expand the scope of our research and develop a process that introduces very fine sustainability produced protein fibres into a layer within this synthetic leather. This will have the substantial benefit of enhancing the strength of the leather while not diminishing the sustainable origins of the material. If the business is able to strengthen the synthetic leather in this way and scale for greater material production, Arda already has brewery suppliers and fashion customers waiting to be part of the supply chain for this new material. The enclosed funding application is focused on a programme of Industrial Research needed to develop, scale and evaluate the performance of this "composite" synthetic leather.