Location
Bristol
Project partners
Partners - Ponda
Project Lead - Finlay Duncan - CTO
Email: finlay@ponda.bio
Partner - ADAS
UK-based independent agricultural and environmental consultancy providing independent science-based research with extensive experience in crop agronomy.
Partner - Air Control Industries (ACI)
Accredited manufacturer of specialty air movement products. ISO 9001 approved production/ testing facility(Axminster). Demonstrated high attention to detail on quality and safety. All machinery risk assessed, built to match recognised industrial standards.
Partner - Winwood Bioscience/ James Hutton Institute
Broad range scientific expertise in field of food ingredients supplements, oils, fatty acids product development, report writing. Testing: JHI lab (UKAS) with extensive analytical capabilities.
Project Overview
To develop the supply and processing of typha seed heads for use as an insulation material for outdoor clothing.
Three key areas of our supply chain will be addressed: fibre cleaning, typha crop science and analysis of process byproducts.
Typha growth trials:
Exploring typha as a fibre crop-enhanced flowering and fibre yield.
(Great Fen and pot trials) exploring planting depth/ density and water table.
Challenge:
The lack of knowledge around Typha physiology: reasons and triggers for flowering
Work:
Two planting trials (Great Fen and pot trials) exploring planting depth/ density and water table.
Typha fibre processing:
Scaling cleaning of typha fibre for textile use.
Challenge:
Typha fibre contains up to 60% very fine seed.
Separation is a unique challenge
Work:
Developing fibre cleaning machinery to be integrated with Ponda’s fibre extraction process. Up to 400 tonne/year capacity (one million jackets)
Seed supply:
Seed extracted during this process can be used to plant at large scale.
Challenge:
The lack of scaled seed supply for economical typha cultivation.
Work:
Refining seed processing and exploring planting with partnered PEF projects (FWAGSW, LWT).
Exploration of additional markets for typha seed.
