80243AEROPOWDER - Cleaning waste feathers to create circular productsClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKFood deliveries played a vital role during the COVID-19 pandemic, as they kept the nation fed and allowed us to remain socially distant and safe. However, fresh food is temperature-sensitive and must remain chilled to avoid spoilage. Thermal packaging, which protects food from changes in temperature during transport, is therefore vital to our supply chain. Traditionally, expanded polystyrene (EPS) has been used as it is an effective insulator. But EPS is well known as an oil-based plastic that devastates the natural environment, remaining in landfills for centuries after use. Following COVID-19 the demand for food deliveries/thermal packaging will increase. Gousto, a prominent meal kit delivery company, delivered five million meals in June compared to around half that amount in January. Generally, online grocery sales jumped 92% in the four weeks to 12 July, rising to 13% of the grocery market from just over 7% before COVID-19\. However, as we build back better is we need to ensure that EPS is a material of the past. Sustainable thermal packaging solutions are needed in the UK, and at AEROPOWDER, our mission is to enable the local production of sustainable materials anywhere in the world, wherever there are feathers. In the UK alone, around 1000 tons of waste feathers are generated by the poultry industry every week, a significant waste disposal issue. The vast majority are converted to a low-grade animal feed, with low nutritional and low economic value. We think feathers can do so much more. Our initial product is pluumo, the world's first feather based sustainable thermal packaging material made for food deliveries. Powered by feathers, pluumo matches the thermal performance of EPS and so allows food deliveries to be made more sustainably as it is produced from waste materials and is compostable after use. pluumo launched in 2018 and is being used at an early adopter scale, but there is still some significant work to be done to ensure that it is available for the wider market. Waste feathers from the poultry industry are not currently cleaned; therefore for this project, AEROPOWDER will develop feather washing processes specific to pluumo's needs, unlocking the immense untapped potential of this waste resource. Feather washing R&D will be carried out collaborating with poultry and feather washing experts. Detailed measurements of self-washed feathers will be carried out, as well as analyses of the thermal performance of prototype pluumo units. Crucially, this project will measure the environmental impact of any proposed processes to ensure that pluumo has a positive impact on food delivery services. Once completed, AEROPOWDER will look towards setting up a UK based dedicated facility for the production of pluumo, including the feather washing system developed. Therefore, this project is vital for setting up jobs, creating an entirely new value chain out of waste feathers, and importantly securing the UK's sustainable thermal packaging supply chain.