At a glance
This project proposes the production of molded biodegradable pots to replace agricultural and horticultural plastic pots on… Read full summary
- Funding received
- 2016-2017
- Large
- Awarded
- $70,000
- Funding partners
-
- Student Activities Fee (SAF)
This project proposes the production of molded biodegradable pots to replace agricultural and horticultural plastic pots on campus. These pots will be made using switchgrass and brewer’s spent grain, both of which are readily available to the Paper and Bioproducts Center located in the basement of Bloedel Hall; a floor layout of this lab can be found attached to this proposal in Figure 2. The Paper and Bioresource Center focuses on conversion of raw bio-materials into pulp, paper, products, and fuels; making it a synergistic fit for this new sustainable molding technology. A current sustainability issue is resolved by fabricating these pots with up to 60% spent grains, preventing these grains entering landfill. Currently, a team of 5 Bioresource Science and Engineering (BSE) students has been established to begin production of these biodegradable pots, with the intent of creating a precedent of sustainable products on the UW campus. Our long-term goal is to provide the campus with sustainable alternatives to disposable plastics across campus organizations, research facilities, and classrooms wherever possible.
This project proposes the production of molded biodegradable pots to replace agricultural and horticultural plastic pots on campus. These pots will be made using switchgrass and brewer’s spent grain, both of which are readily available to the Paper and Bioproducts Center located in the basement of Bloedel Hall; a floor layout of this lab can be found attached to this proposal in Figure 2. The Paper and Bioresource Center focuses on conversion of raw bio-materials into pulp, paper, products, and fuels; making it a synergistic fit for this new sustainable molding technology. A current sustainability issue is resolved by fabricating these pots with up to 60% spent grains, preventing these grains entering landfill. Currently, a team of 5 Bioresource Science and Engineering (BSE) students has been established to begin production of these biodegradable pots, with the intent of creating a precedent of sustainable products on the UW campus. Our long-term goal is to provide the campus with sustainable alternatives to disposable plastics across campus organizations, research facilities, and classrooms wherever possible.
Kaitlin Tighe
Project lead
- ktighe@uw.edu
- Affiliation
- Student
Melanie Goddard
Team member
- goddard.m.a12@gmail.com
- Affiliation
- Student
Overview
While University of Washington agriculture groups are among the greenest operations on campus, currently all horticulture and agriculture groups are using plastic pots for their needs. With the technology, expertise, and additional resources already available in the UW Paper and Bioresource Science Center, there is a clear opportunity for green, biodegradable pots to be produced on campus, thereby replacing all need for the purchase and disposal of thousands of plastic pots. Our ultimate goal is to provide the campus with sustainable alternatives to disposable plastics across campus groups, research facilities, and classrooms wherever possible.
Environmental Impact
Current campus use: While groups across campus are currently washing and reusing their plastics, this can be water-intensive and often includes bleaching the pots, creating hazardous run-off. The energy and petroleum intensive production of these plastic nursery pots, as well as the potential for them to end up in landfill to consider. To combat the drawbacks of using petroleum-based plastics, this project proposes the most sustainable product possible for use across campus.
Proposed solution: The biodegradable pots will be planted directly into the soil leading to zero waste products at end-use. Additionally, pulp fiber pots will be cut with up to 60% brewers’ spent grain. This remedies a growing problem of wasted spent grain that has arrived with the popularity of breweries in Washington State. One of the most unique attributes of these pots is the application of a sustainable re-use for this grain that will provide nutrients back to the soil. Furthermore, the remaining structure will be molded of barley or wheat straw as an economically feasible raw-material.
Utilizing another waste product from the Paper and Bioresource Lab, fertilizer can be implemented via spraying a ‘black liquor’ solution on the inside of the pots. Using black liquor from already-existing sulfite pulping operations can add sulfur and lower pH to amend the soils, as well as aid the structural integrity of the pots. Black liquor is made of residual sugars, lignin and dissolved solids, thus adding only organic material back to the soil. In total, carbon from these waste materials and black liquor are sequestered from the biomass into the ground, resulting in a carbon-neutral process from our estimates.
Student Leadership and Involvement
This project is overseen by a core of five Bioresource Science and Engineering juniors and seniors as well as students from the UW Society for Ecological Restoration (UW-SER), each specializing in different areas. With support from the UW Paper and Bioresource Lab, each member of the team has a specialty in analytics, chemical composition of the pots, machinery, molding technologies, or black liquor fertilizer implementation.
In addition, part of this grant covers a new molding system which can provide UW students a chance to apply classroom concepts in the lab, experiencing a production line from starting bio materials to end-product. This machinery can specifically be used for Bioresource Science and Engineering curriculum, providing students with hands-on experience with pilot-scale industry machinery.
Education, Outreach, & Behavior Change
This interdisciplinary project currently involves a close partnership across majors and campus groups. Currently, our closest partnership is with UW’s Society for Ecological Restoration. By servicing UW SER alone, we will replace the need for approximately 500 seedling containers per year, among others. With the help of this grant we hope to replace thousands more across campus. Once this product can be produced to scale, we can provide our biodegradable pots to any group on campus who would be interested in cutting plastics use and fertilizer costs. Ultimately, our goal is to see all plastics use by agriculture and horticulture groups replaced by our products, adding another element to UW’s reputation as a green campus.
Feasibility, Accountability, & Sustainability
This team of students is competent in their respective specialties, has experience in the Paper and Bioresource Labs as well as industry applicability. This team will be overseeing the full implementation of the project throughout, once these students graduate, new Bioresource Science and Engineering students will be fully equipped to continue production.
With the pilot-scale equipment, it will also be possible and necessary to create several molds and fertilizer options for various applications to eliminate all plastic pots on campus. Our proposed process for production is outlined in Figure 1 below. (missing)
Budget Estimate
While we have the technology, information, and research to begin production, the current methodology is primitive, and capital is needed to increase and streamline production to extend reach across campus. While we have extra tanks, pumps and other generics to put towards this endeavor, in total, we are requesting $90,000 to complete this project, the details of which are outlined below.
Fixed:
- $60,000 automated mold equipment (online estimate), Figure 1 displays the main units considered in this cost.
- $10,000 Infrastructure (piping, wiring)
- $8,000-$10,000 molds for several pot sizes (designed in collaboration with UW SER)
- $2,000 sprayer for black liquor coating
Variable:
- $2,000 start-up costs
- $1,000-$3,000 chemicals - release agent, black liquor, shipping
- $1,000 raw materials, shipping
- $2,000 equipment spares (pumps, seals, extras)
Request amount and budget
How the project will react to funding reductions
The main component of this project which requires CSF funding is the machinery, installation, and general start-up costs as mentioned in the itemized budget. The first section of the itemized budget includes molding machine parts and prices from a quote received from the manufacturer. The Paper and Bioresource Center fortunately has some of the unit operations needed, thereby saving close to $20,000 the quote received by the manufacturer. This accounts for approximately $20,000 difference between the estimate now, and in the time of writing the Letter-of-Intent one month ago. Any costs related to installation and start-up utilities are subject to funding reductions as the project moves forward. The second portion of the itemized budget includes variable and estimated costs which may be subject to change as the project begins operation. The raw materials such as pulp, brewer’s spent grain, and release agent chemicals will be continuously purchased through the maintenance budget of the Paper and Bioresource Center. This budget has been pre-approved by Kurt Haunreiter as requested. We respectfully request a $70,000 grant to fully fund our project. It is difficult to foresee the nature of any return on investment regarding this project while still in the pre-production stage, however discussion of repayment could be re-opened post-production.
Plans for financial longevity
We currently have a start-up team of five BSE undergraduates that intend to work on this project until their graduation in June of 2018. This means the preparation and start-up will be overseen by these five students, and continued by the BSE and UW SER-affiliated students mentioned above. Pulp-molding production gives these students additional access to self-sustaining design projects, an asset that will always be in demand in the BSE program. Currently, prototype pots have been fabricated and characterized at the bench-scale. The next steps post-funding are ordering the molding machine parts and assessing physical utilities once the equipment arrives. Though we have attached the approval forms from grounds and facilities to install, it’s likely that we will contract-out the installation of equipment given the complexity of current infrastructure in the Paper and Bioresource Center. Figure 2 has the finalized location of the mold machine on the floor layout as approved by Kurt Haunreiter. As of now, the following are assured: supplier, start-up team, potential market through UW SER, raw materials, space, and infrastructure. Figure 1 shows a chart of the current start-up timeline through the end of August. Once the product is produced in a sustainable fashion, outreach and education of these campus biodegradable products can begin.
Problem statement
Many organizations on campus work with plants for landscaping, agriculture, and horticulture research. Although the end-uses strive to be a sustainable as possible, currently, most of these plants are housed in disposable plastic plant pots. These plastic pots are often washed out for re-use using excess water and possibly bleach, creating hazardous runoff. By offering a biodegradable plant pot, this project hopes to decrease the carbon footprint, water-use, and waste associated with the use of disposable pots. At the same time, soil health and plant growth will be improved by nutrients in the pot that originate from pulp, brewer’s spent grain, and black liquor fertilizer. Finally, the molding machine’s use to make the pots will serve as an example of sustainable manufacturing on a pilot scale.
Environmental benefits of these biodegradable pots include:
- Better aeration for roots
- Improved growth and survival
- Decay of the pot allows roots to grow out into surrounding soil whereas planted (roots are unable to expand when planted from plastic containers, thereby reducing growth and survival [1]).
- Prevention of transplant shock
- Less fertilizer needed compared to peat pots, reducing possibility of burnt roots [2]
- Increased nutrients in the soil through the use of brewer’s spent grain – this reduces the amount of grain in landfills
- Study showed distillery waste combined with peat compost enhanced the contents of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and sodium in the soil [3].
- Increasing distillery waste by 25% has a positive effect on seedling height [3].
References
[1]M. Theuer, "Plant pot that fertilizes when it biodegrades", US 20050188612 A1, 2017.
[2]J. Pullen, "Cellulosic molded transplanter pot or other products containing bagasse components", US 3102364 A, 2017.
[3]M. Bustamante, C. Paredes, R. Moral, E. Agulló, M. Pérez-Murcia and M. Abad, "Composts from distillery wastes as peat substitutes for transplant production", Resources, Conservation and Recycling, vol. 52, no. 5, pp. 792-799, 2008.
Measure the impacts
While production start-up is our priority, monitoring the impacts of the pots is an important aspect of this project. There are three possible pathways for data collection; all of them are entirely student-led and could directly compare CO2 emissions, water consumption, waste, and soil/plant health related to our biodegradable products in comparison to that of plastic containers. Since the entire process from raw bio-materials to end-product is conducted on campus, a full life-cycle-assessment (LCA) of our products can be conducted by these students.
- The first monitoring method is providing an opportunity for data collection for an Environmental Science & Resource Management (ESRM) student’s capstone project via our partnership with UW Society of Ecological Restoration (SER). This will begin after production once Autumn quarter begins in September 2017.
- Secondly there is an opportunity for this project to be analyzed by Bioresource Science and Engineering (BSE) students in the BSE 426 and 436 lab classes. In both cases, at least one life-cycle-assessment can be conducted by a group of students each year, in addition to process efficiency modifications.
- Lastly, as per the CSF’s suggestion, integration with ESRM 412 “Native Plant Production” could be a valuable source of research for efficacy regarding the growth of native plants in our pots. This data could then be fed to the BSE students working on production to continuously improve product qualities.
Education and outreach goals
To increase the market size after production, we plan to give away samples of our product to applicable campus groups. This involves contacting UW grounds, botanic gardens, and possibly food vendors on campus to see if our products are viable replacements for their plastics. In addition, there are several BSE student group-related events in which free samples and/or demonstrations can increase exposure of our product. For example, TAPPI holds an annual Christmas fundraiser, during which our products can be sold to the public. In addition, we can partner with sustainability-focused booths and tables at campus events in Red-Square and have them feature our product.
In terms of education, the technical process details related to both manufacturing and raw materials can be integrated into BSE curriculum across multiple classes and grade levels, involving freshman to senior students in sustainable production processes. ESRM/SER students, and those taking ESRM 412 as detailed in the ‘Student Involvement’ section will also be directly impacted in the education of biodegradable containers as well. We will begin incorporating process information into relevant class starting in Autumn quarter 2017 after production has begun.
Student involvement
This project will be entirely student-led by undergraduates in BSE, with support provided by ESRM students involved in SER. It is likely that student volunteers and student-employees involved will be student members of the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI), as this machinery is directly applicable to their industry. These students will be the ones in charge of production, quality control, and continued campus outreach, and will be sought out beginning in Autumn quarter 2017.
Additionally, production of these biodegradables will be integrated into BSE curriculum as a permanent part of Paper and Bioresource Center. This includes an introduction to the machinery in 200-level BSE courses, to prepare these process engineering students to study a sustainable production line later in their undergraduate career. Learning opportunities will continue into the students’ senior year during BSE 436 (a papermaking laboratory course) where the product can be analyzed and improved upon. The design-based BSE 480-481 courses is where students will explore design economics and perform a full LCA on the process. In total, the incorporation of this process into the curriculum accounts for 40 students consistently working on production, analysis, and improvements. Perhaps the most important stakeholders to this project are the future students who will gain valuable hands-on experience with the production of sustainable products. This technology will continue to be highly applicable to industry as more plastics are being replaced by molded pulp products.
Additionally, a possible avenue for student involvement is opening an opportunity for an ESRM student to take data on the end-use of the product’s life. This will provide valuable information for the production and improvement teams, and more data for the project’s progress.