The name says it all: Eggshells and Cutting EDGE ResearchIn her module, Obeidat found four fellow students who got enthusiastic about the idea. Alena Fries, Bahar Abrishamchi, Paulina Welzenbach, Cora Schmetzer, and Lina Obeidat competed as Team EDGGY in the EIT Food Solutions: Reuse2Repack Challenge. The competition is about developing a bio-based packaging solution from food waste.Their idea and claim is also reflected in their product name: Cutting EDGE research and the use of EGGs.

Successes and setbacks: Experience research – and be successful

However, it was to take another 9 months before success was achieved. "Before the first experiments, we first studied technical literature extensively,” recalled Alena Fries. “The whole thing was definitely not a linear process. In the laboratory, we kept reviewing our approach, adjusting the methods and analyzing the results. For example, we experimented with starch, but discarded that idea: The packaging just became way too hard.”

Or they studied the drying process: “When is it too wet, when is it too dry? So we were constantly turning the cogs and examining each prototype for strengths and weaknesses – until we finally got the best result.”And that is ingeniously simple: “Our packaging is made from a simple mixture of vegetable protein, eggshells, and structuring plasticizers such as water,” said Bahar Abrishamchi. “It’s nothing fancy or complicated – but it works.”

From the challenge to a start-up?

“The production of this packaging material was a journey that was as rewarding as it was challenging,” said Cora Schmelzer. “The Resuse2Repack Challenge has allowed us to go through a research cycle while gaining our own entrepreneurial skills that can be applied to many different areas of life.”The challenge is now over, EDGGY won the prize for the most innovative idea, and it was honored for this achievement in Rome in November. Is that the end of the product and the end of the team? No, say all five. And Paulina Welzenbach added: “Our product can and needs to be improved, and we want to pursue that, maybe even create our own start-up.”

Nevertheless, they are already proud that “we at EDGGY have developed an idea that can reduce plastic waste. And we’re excited to see what the future holds for us.”

BACKGROUND: EIT Food Solutions
Reuse2Repack Challenge – Rethinking food packaging for regenerating resourcesThe climate crisis, environmental pollution, but also the depletion and scarcity of resources require new, innovative ways of thinking: From the design of packaging, to recycling to new ways of producing packaging materials. To develop these new ways of thinking and ways of doing things, EIT Food, a “knowledge & innovation community” of the European Union, called on students to participate in the Reuse2Repack Challenge 2022. The teams were supported by mentors from the university and industry over a period of nine months.

More about EIT Food: https://www.eitfood.eu/

BACKGROUND: Start-up assistance at the University of Hohenheim

The University of Hohenheim offers a broad concept for start-up support. A central element of this is the Innovation Greenhouse – a greenhouse for ideas and innovations with its own premises on the university campus. It is a showroom and co-working space for people interested in starting a business, offers a FabLab to quickly turn ideas into prototypes, workshops and pitching events – in short: a vibrant start-up culture. The Hohenheim guiding theme of bioeconomy always plays a special role.

More about the InnoGreenhouse: https://inno-greenhouse.uni-hohenheim.de/