The market
The world market for biocompatible polymers is estimated at $ 10 billion. According to the German Nova Institute, the demand for plastics and bio-industrial composites is experiencing two-digit growth despite the economic crisis. Polymers derived from oil have replaced most natural substitutes and replaced metals. The introduction of design plastics has reduced the costs and weight of transport and electronics. Polymers of natural origin maintain a faithful clientele and even increase their market share. However, plastics made from corn starch compete with food, cotton consumes massive quantities of irrigation water and pesticides, cellulose cellophane requires sulfuric acid in the production process. These examples imply that polymers from renewable resources are not necessarily durable.
Silk is historically the first industrialized polymer which has become a standard on the market. World silk production has already exceeded one million tonnes per year around 1900, but fell to 90,000 tonnes a century later, resulting in the loss of around 25 million rural jobs. Agriculture and the transformation of silk have been disorganized by China on India, Persia, Turkey and Italy. Only a few luxury products such as Hermès ties have survived the market as a quality reference. Recently, production has rebounded at nearly 100,000 tonnes.
Innovation
When the Chinese opted for the planting of mulberry trees about 5,000 years ago, they focused on regeneration of surface soil on arid land to develop agriculture according to their growing food demand. It was by chance that a cocoon fell into the empress of tea cup and that it removed 300 meters of silk wire from hot water. This discovery gave birth to a global industry. Silk has never been able to compete with the introduction of synthetic fibers and few have embarked on fundamental research to identify the real potential of this renewable polymer.
Professor Fritz Vollrath and the Silk Group of the University of Oxford (United Kingdom) studied the natural polymers of bees, ants, mussels, spiders and night butterflies. Some spiders produce a silk that surpasses titanium. First silk with a weight performance ratio while being biocompatible. Silk is absorbed by body tissues, while titanium is not rejected by the body. Second, the silk of the mulberry worm, which is not a worm but a caterpillar, can be transformed into silk from the spider by simply controlling the pressure and the humidity. Third, carbon -rich silk, not only replaces a polymer derived from oil which emitted carbon during its manufacture, but it releases a positive cycle of carbon sequestration from trees to the production of biocompatible devices to Low energy and pressure, creating a raw material that can be recycled for life. If the Grège silk is obtained by traditional methods as is the case in Bhutan, the caterpillar is not boiled to death and offers a new look at human agriculture.
The first cash flow
While silk was once the standard raw material of quality clothing, this market has evaporated over the years. It will be very difficult for silk to enter the consumer goods market where nylon has long replaced natural polymers. The first application portfolio concerns medical devices. Fritz Vollrath founded Oxford Biomaterials and has successfully created four companies that each focus on clearly defined niches where silk has a competitive advantage. The four applications are: sutures, nervous repair, bone transplant and orthopedic devices. Capitals have been mobilized and partners were confirmed for each request. New companies from Oxford Biomaterials are neurotex, Suturox and Orthrox, the latter being co -financed by the Welcome Foundation.
The simplest commercial product are the sutures, these filaments used by surgeons to seize us after surgery. The braiding of Grège silk in sterile conditions is all that is necessary, then the fixing of a fiber needle. Serial production of standardized sutures is controlled by few actors like Johnson & Johnson. Although it is possible to earn little money with silk for textiles, a niche market like sutures could stimulate the revival of local industries operating in a niche market, replacing expensive imports with local manufacturing which incorporates the planting of trees, rural jobs and carbon sequestration, with a monetary flow from added value which requires only limited investments to penetrate the market.
The opportunity
The field of potential silk applications goes beyond medical devices. Some consumer products also offer an extraordinary opportunity, even if the more the development of products is necessary because there is no ready -to -use design for the mass market of rapidly moving consumer goods. The razor is a clear target. A razor is made of titanium and stainless steel. It is estimated that 100,000 tonnes of high quality metals from razors end in the discharges. The amount of stainless steel and titanium per razor was divided by 20 compared to the first versions invented by Mr. Gillette over a hundred years ago. Recently, the total quantity of highly treated metals, including titanium, is again up, since the simple blade has become a double, triple and now pair with five blades, promising a shaving more closely.
It may seem unacceptable to claim that a silk alternative could surpass the inventive capacity of 500 full -time researchers in Gillette. However, the new economic model that could emerge could be so different that none of the three market leaders (Gillette, Schick and BIC) could engage in such a fundamental change. Instead of cutting the keratin (the hair) with a blade, the silk threads rolled on the skin by cutting the top of the hair just as the old hand mowers did. A major advantage is that silk can only cut the hair, and never the skin.
If the 100,000 tonnes of highly processed metals sent to the discharge were replaced by silk, it would be necessary to plant more mulberry trees, because the current world offer represents only 100,000 tonnes. This plantation requires around 1,250,000 hectares of mulberry trees on firm land, which is available in abundance worldwide. Planting, caterpillar farming and transformation generate approximately 1,500,000 jobs while reviving the carbon sequestration cycle that surpasses any technical solution. The possibility of introducing silk as a competitive product focuses on market niches where the current consumer behavior is waste. The possibility of replacing titanium with something as smooth as silk has an obvious commercial advantage that many are ready to exploit. And you ?
