Synbio Powerhouse together with its industrial partners calls for ideas and solutions for the following challenges: Synthetic biofuels from CO2 and H2 , Municipal solid waste as feedstock, Living factories with microalgae and Microbial materials for the textile and clothing industry.
Today’s forward-looking industries and investors are fiercely searching for sustainable solutions that go beyond the obvious, in other words, are disruptive, scalable, environmentally sound and make business sense.
Synbio Powerhouse, a part of VTT, focuses on solving global challenges using the power of biotechnology. We help researchers and innovators to introduce ideas, solutions, and products to those willing to fund them and scale them. You can be a startup, established company or an innovator. We welcome software, hardware and lab solutions at different degrees of readiness.
St1 Challenge
Synthetic biofuels from CO 2 and H2
Currently St1 uses waste feedstock in its biorefineries. However, biomass alone will not meet the requirements for carbon-neutral energy production. In the future, we believe we must go beyond that, into synthetic biofuels using for example industrial CO2emissions as raw-material. Innovation is urgently needed to make this goal a reality.
Various approaches to harness CO2emissions as a building block for materials, fuels or chemicals exist, but these are still to advance to industrial maturity. Synthetic biology offers new tools to harness microbial conversion of CO2 or H2 to desired end products.
We are already working with academia and industry to discover new, viable technologies to produce synthetic fuels of the future. We expect that in 10 years’ time, a significant share of our biofuel production will be based on synthetic fuels.
We are inviting research, technologies, and partners that will put us and keep us on the path towards a synthetic fuel future.
SynBio Powerhouse Partner Challenge
Microbial materials for the textile and clothing industry
Currently the textile and clothing industries are a devastating burden to earth’s water resources and land use. The use of fossil-based materials, plastics and the waste they accumulate multiply the problem. Synthetic biology offers many opportunities to address this problem.
Microbes can efficiently use a huge variety of waste sources to produce substitutes for fossil-based raw materials as well as cotton and silk. They can also be used to make leather-like materials and other protein-based materials with desired characteristics. Biotechnology also enables never-before-seen functionalities to be integrated and new design opportunities. Consumers increasingly want textiles that are sustainable, functional, comfortable and beautiful, all at once.
Our partners and investors are searching for new sustainable and socially responsible innovations to fund.
We are looking for cutting-edge innovations for the textile and consumer goods industry harnessing the potential of synthetic biology.
What is in it for me?
Pitch to Industrial leaders
The ones that pass our selection process get to pitch to investors and corporate partners looking for opportunities.
We will bring some of the most influential players in our networks to meet you during the pitching event. The final list of the participants will be announced in the fall of 2020.
The pitching takes place in three categories: innovators, startups/SMEs and research scientists. All pitches in these categories are competing for the main prize. A good pitch often has an unexpected element in it, but what we expect to hear is a presentation of the team members, the problem, the solution and a brief breakdown of the science behind your solution. We also appreciate a relevant reference to a publication or other data.