Oktoberfest is in full swing in Bavaria, attracting both locals and tourists. In 2023, attendees in Munich alone consumed a staggering 6.5 million litres of beer during the iconic annual festival.

This year, students from the local Technical University have devised an innovative solution to tackle waste from the regional brewing industry. Their startup, HopfON (named after the German word for ‘hops’), transforms beer production waste into sustainable building materials.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Mauricio Fleischer Acuña, one of the founders of HopfON, explained: "We saw a huge potential in sourcing locally and also using a waste stream that was neglected by basically most people." The students were inspired by a lecture on repurposing fibres from banana farming waste in Colombia.

Each autumn, when hops are harvested in Germany's Hallertau region—the world’s largest hops-growing area—for every kilogram of material inside the cones that can be used for brewing, 3.5 kilograms of biomass from the rest of the plant is discarded. This results in an 80% waste to 20% usable product ratio.

While some hops waste is used as fertiliser or sold to biogas plants for energy production, most of it is of no use to farmers. Often, they are forced to rent additional agricultural land to store the waste, which poses risks as it can ferment, release greenhouse gases, and even catch fire.

During harvest season, HopfON collects fresh hops waste from farmers, dries it, and removes any impurities or recyclable metals. The remaining biomass is then crushed and processed using a patent-pending method. This innovative process employs natural binding compounds found in plants, transforming the biomass into products such as acoustic panels, thermal insulation, and building boards.

The startup’s founders—Mauricio Fleischer Acuña, Marlene Stechl, and Thomas Rojas Sonderegger—plan to expand their operations by incorporating other organic waste materials. As part of this growth, they intend to rebrand the company, changing its name from HopfON to onmatter.

Source: euronews.com