Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ECO-Pet (Eco-friendly, safe and highly-absorbent wood pellets for animal bedding and litter, produced by an optimized cost-efficient energy process)
Reporting period: 2019-02-01 to 2019-05-31
EBINOR (Energía Natural del Norte S.L.) is a Spanish company dedicated to producing wood pellets for heating and animal bedding/litter purposes. Based on our patented pelletizing process, covering a novel optimized energy efficient production – where the energy requirements are reduced by a third – EBINOR aims to produce ECO-Pet as a pelletized litter/bedding product for domestic animals that is 100 % biodegradable, safe, cost effective (38 % cheaper than conventional pellets), durable, and highly absorbent (25 % more absorbent than current solutions). ECO-Pet uses forestry wastes as raw materials that cannot be used for energy purposes, thus valorising these wastes and participating in the reaching a sustainable Europe. The main objective of the ECO-Pet project is the industrial adaptation and scaling up of our innovative pelletizing process.
EBINOR has already made important technological progress in ECO-Pet thanks to an R&D project funded by the public Agency for Economic Development (ADER) of La Rioja (Spain). The project was carried out in 2016-2017, in which EBINOR made important technological and methodological advances in ECO-Pet. EBINOR first tested different mixtures of hardwoods and conifers to reach the most absorbent and long-lasting formulation. Then, the pelletizing process by which conventional stove pellets are produced was modified to produce pellets and flakes designed to suit the needs of domestic animals and their owners. The new pelletizing process as well as the new products are patent protected. As well, EBINOR’s innovative products have been tested with animals in real environments (litter-boxes and stables) to validate their safety and efficacy
ECO-Pet pellets and flakes go beyond the state of the art because they are the first 100 % natural wood bedding/litter pellet to be designed specifically to be used by domestic animals. The expected potential impact of our innovation is huge. First, it uses non-marketable forestry waste and low economic value species such as poplar as main raw materials, which make our product more affordable. Also, it requires less amount of product compared to our competitors, thus saving money, time and resources. In addition, our product is more durable and has a higher absorption capacity than conventional stove pellets because of its protected production process and subsequent polyhedral shape.