The European Union’s mandate to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 has made sustainability a top priority for companies worldwide. As a result, industries are adopting alternatives to various processes of their production, leading to GHG emissions. One area companies are readily reducing their carbon footprint by using eco-friendly printer ink is the packaging.
While they haven’t been able to completely eliminate the emissions yet, these companies and startups are developing eco-friendly printer inks to reduce carbon emissions.
How sustainable are their methods? And will it solve the industry’s problem in the long term?
Graviky Labs: Eco-friendly Printer Ink from Air Pollution
Graviky Labs, an MIT spinoff dedicated to developing clean technology solutions, has found a unique way to repurpose air pollution.
By creating a patented process, they transform harmful particulate matter generated by burning fossil fuels into useful everyday materials such as eco-friendly printer inks.
To achieve this, they first remove heavy metals and carcinogens from soot produced by fossil fuel combustion. Then, they purify the remaining carbon and treat it with specific chemicals to create high-quality black ink.
It is impossible to address climate change without making everyday consumption more sustainable.
Nikhil Kaushik, CEO
Funding
With their latest funding on Apr 13, 2021, Graviky Labs has raised $245K in over 7 funding rounds.
Commercialization
Their product AIR-INK is the world’s first ink that is recycled out of air pollution and is being used in printing. About 45 minutes of offshore oil drilling pollution can yield 30 milliliters of AIR-INK. To give you more context, 1ml of ink can print about 50 pages.
Living Ink: Ecological Printer Ink from Algal Residue
Living Ink claims its ink is climate positive, with 45 pounds of its product capable of removing 59 kg of CO2 from the environment when produced industrially. This amount is equivalent to negating the use of 22.5 pounds of petroleum.
When compared with its traditional counterparts, they claim that the ink can be stored and used without modification.
That’s a plus one! Isn’t it?
The company aims to provide a sustainable and safe alternative to carbon black pigments. To achieve this, they have developed a process that uses algae-derived pigments to create eco-friendly printer inks.
The company sources its biomass from Earthrise Nutritionals in California, where spirulina, a type of algae, is grown from natural food colorants.
After extracting the colorant, the remaining algae waste biomass is processed and purified using a proprietary method to create a black pigment. This purified content is then milled to form a dispersion that can generate ink.
Funding
Living Ink Technologies has raised $3M in over 5 funding rounds, with their last round of funding in 2021 raising $1.5 million.
Commercialization
Their algal inks are available for a variety of printing purposes and surfaces, including cardboard, paper, clothing, and plastic.
Collaboration
Further, the company has also been active in collaborating; last year, Nike collaborated with Living Ink to produce algae-based graphic tees.
Author’s note: We recently talked with Scott Fulbright, CEO of Living Ink, to get insights into their technology and future plans. Want to know how it went? See for yourself!
Newlight Technologies: Sustainable Printer Ink from Carbon Emissions
Every day, natural microorganisms in the ocean consume air and greenhouse gas dissolved in saltwater to produce a meltable energy storage material inside of their cells called PHB.
With 10 years of research, Newlight learned how to replicate this process on land.
Combining natural microorganisms from the ocean with renewable power, air, salt water, and captured greenhouse gas emissions that would have otherwise been released into the atmosphere to produce PHB — a material that they call AirCarbon.
The material is also compostable, degradable in the ocean, and certified carbon-negative. Further, this material can be used to create various products, including eco-friendly printer inks.
Funding
With their latest funding on Jul 14, 2022, Newlight Technologies has raised $106.6M over 7 funding rounds.
Commercialization
Over the years, Newlight Technologies has improved its processes to make AirCarbon cost-competitive with petroleum-derived thermoplastics.
While affordability exists, scalability seems like an issue. Currently, Newlight has only one commercial production facility.
Yet, the company has received many purchasing and licensing global-scale agreements.
Packaging remains a critical aspect of greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, the food and beverage industry is seeking alternatives in food packaging. However, one of the key challenges faced is the preservation of food for a longer period of time.
To tackle this challenge, a Korean food company has worked on an eco-friendly printer ink composition that absorbs CO2.
Cheil Jedang: Carbon-negative Printer Ink that adsorbs CO2
CheilJedang is a leading Korean food manufacturer that has developed an innovative ink composition capable of adsorbing carbon dioxide within food packaging.
The company’s recently published patent, US20220081582A1, has details on this ink and its application in Kimchi packaging.
This pH-sensitive ink composition consists of polyethylene imine polymer, which can adsorb the carbon dioxide generated within the packaging. Moreover, the ink can change its color on adsorbing carbon dioxide. Being basic, it changes to acidic when it adsorbs carbon dioxide.
The company provides packaging for many kimchi products — an industry where CO2 generation within a packet is a big problem.
That’s a smart and sustainable solution. Isn’t it?
Not only companies but universities are also researching to produce inks that are carbon neutral.
One such research involves using Biochar in printing inks instead of carbon black.
Rochester Institute of Technology: Replacing Carbon Black with Biochar
In the packaging industry lithographic printing is commonly used in the packaging industry, and carbon black has traditionally been a go-to material for absorbing carbon emissions.
However, according to research by the Rochester Institute of Technology, there is a more promising alternative: Biochar, a carbon-negative material.
During the production of Biochar, organic waste is heated in the absence of oxygen through a process called pyrolysis. This prevents the material from combusting and creates a different product than burning would.
As a result, the biochar produced contains more carbon than other organic compounds, allowing it to sequester carbon that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere.
Being a carbon-negative material, it shows promising use in the production of lithographic inks used for packaging.
Replacing carbon black with Biochar would absorb carbon emissions and provide a more sustainable and environmentally friendly option for the packaging industry.
Although companies are making Biochar, its commercial application in eco-friendly printer inks has not been popularized yet. Therefore indicating a potential to rise in the future.
While these contributions are very small, they are an ecologically sound choice that can help companies meet environmental initiatives for a lower carbon footprint. Given above were just a few examples of entities working on innovations to help reduce carbon emissions.
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Authored By: Ridhima, Marketing and Priya, Patent Analytics
Next Read: Top 10 Startups Researching Sustainable Packaging Trends
