Established in Martinique in 2009, FIBandCO gives a second life to banana plant trunks and aims to develop a new exotic material made from banana trunks (usually wasted) as a clean alternative to wood: GREEN BLADE®, an exceptional raw material, 100% natural and eco-designed.
The context: at the end of their life cycle, banana plants die on the spot and grow again from their bulb. Previously, after bananas fruits harvesting, trunk was naturally decomposing. From now on, the banana trees trunk is harvested and used to create value through this unique material Green Blade®. This process doesn’t use water nor chemicals. FIBandCO recycles this abundant agricultural waste, grab as a particularly virtuous renewable raw material.
FIBandCO has been created to develop and exploit commercially this idea and its business model is dual-sided:
- (1) First, the objective is to market this new raw material;
- (2) Second, the objective is to develop, provide and market “turnkey factories” for banana planters, to exploit the raw material throughout the year.
Thus, FIBandCO proposes the whole value chain, from the innovation concept to the commercialization of the products and services.
Preliminary work and experiments have led to the concept validation, production process definition, and patent filing. First prototype machines have been developed in relevant environment (TRL 6) allowing to produce GREEN BLADE® first prototype and samples. Up to now, the solution, almost operational, allowed the company to sign different investments and to address first commercial applications.
The final green economy outcomes and disruptive model perfectly fit with SC5-20-2014-1 call. This phase I helped our company to hit the market with a clear strategic view in terms of business model, R&D and IPR.
The next steps will focus on the subsequent development stages required in order to prepare the solution’s industrialisation and commercialisation, such as the first turnkey factory that will be developed and tested in operational environment (TRL 7), the products certifications and marketing and dissemination actions.
