3rd prize 2024

Tobias Irkens and Philipp Wisse were awarded third prize for their groundbreaking degradation regulator for bioplastics. With their product, the founders of GreenFoilNature GmbH not only prove that the lifespan of biopolymers can be "programmed" astonishingly well. They also demonstrate how fundamentally new approaches can emerge when experience from one branch of science is transferred to another. The entrepreneurs entered the plastics industry as career changers: after Irkens, a qualified pharmacist, and Wisse, a biomedical engineering engineer, successfully developed algae-based patches for mouth ulcers a few years ago, they came up with the idea of ​​making the carrier matrix used for this thinner. The result was a water-soluble biofilm. The idea of ​​the degradation regulator was born in order to adapt its durability to the requirements of medical treatment. To do this, the two researchers transferred tried and tested principles from pharmaceutical research to the world of plastics. "If it is possible to make drugs work in the intestine without them having been released and activated on their way from the mouth through the body, for example by saliva, stomach acid or body heat, then it will also be possible to trigger bioplastics in a similar way," says Irkens, describing the initial considerations.

An approach that turned out to be so promising that the two inventors founded their joint company in January 2024. At that time, they were already able to present an initial kit of algae-based regulators that, when added to bioplastics as powder or granules during compounding, specifically control their decomposition. Irkens and Wisse are not satisfied with just influencing the speed of decomposition processes in bioplastics. The declared aim is also to "program" a wide variety of trigger factors such as moisture, pH values ​​or temperatures into the material. The kit is intended to continue to grow in many directions.

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GreenFoilNature GmbH
Tobias Irkens
 

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