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Friday, March 29, 2024

Kelheim breaks new grounds in innovation management

What is precious more than having an opportunity to explore and present your individual ideas to the world, full of innovation.

Breaking new grounds of innovation, the Kelheim Fibres organized a competition in February 2017. The subject for the competition was “100% cellulose fibres – rethought.” The competition was part of the start-up contest “Plan B – Biomass Business Bavaria” organize by Bio-Campus Straubing under the patronage of the Bavarian State Secretary for Economic Affairs Franz Josef Pschierer.

Walter Roggenstein, R&D Manager at Kelheim states that; “In R&D we don’t just rely on receiving ideas for new products or new applications in our dreams, but we proceed in a focused and methodical way.” He further added that; “For us, this competition in cooperation with Biocampus Straubing was an attempt to boost our innovation process and to open it to beyond the boundaries of our company.”

Matthew North, Commercial Director at Kelheim Fibres, adds: “The competition was not only about specific ideas – we have seen completely new conceptual approaches and we have gained contacts in industry sectors and application areas formerly unknown to us. And by opening the process to outsiders we could avoid the risk of operational blindness.”

Extremely pleased and satisfied with the experience, the administration witnessed a broad spectrum of ideas. From a very simple to visionary future products, the event found more than 20 different ideas. These ideas were submitted by varied people, from school pupils to experienced tradespeople to academics.

The winner of the competition, Dr. Jürgen Pettrak from “Straubinger Entwässerung und Reinigung” (local wastewater authorities), was rewarded with prize of 2.500 Euro. His idea was the use of filters made of functionalised viscose fibres as a fourth clarification stage in wastewater treatment plants, to filter out the increasing amount of endocrine substances found in wastewater. These endocrine substances find their way into the water due to the growing use of drugs in human medicine as well as in large-scale farming and, if not filtered out, they may finally affect our genetic material.

But Kelheim Fibres was also excited by the other proposals, which concern the use of viscose fibres in environmentally sound yet at the same time tailor-made wound care, in semi-finished products with printed electrical circuits, eco-friendly felt pens, panels of pressed straw for construction applications and an idea for a regional marketing for regionally produced fibre products. These ideas were awarded further prizes.

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