Transfoam LLC (dba Ourobio) is a synbio, biomaterials, and circular economy startup. We develop engineered microorganisms to turn agricultural byproducts into low-footprint, performance-enhancing biodegradable plastic resins and additives, and we work with our customers to formulate biomaterial blends to create more sustainable products and packaging. Our core technology is distinguished in its ability to convert complex agricultural waste streams into two complementary biomaterials in a single fermentation process. Our proof-of-concept uses dairy processing byproducts as the raw material to non-competitively co-produce bio-based biodegradable plastic resins and pigments - lowering the cost, footprint, and difficulty of producing marketable/brandable, fully bio-based and biodegradable products and packaging. We have directed our research efforts to using whey as our initial feedstock, given that less than half of the 120M+ tons generated annually are repurposed. By using waste whey as a feedstock to produce both a colorant and polymer (carrier) simultaneously, our process offers cheese and yogurt manufacturers a more sustainable method of waste management, creates healthier alternative to industry's toxic petroleum-based polymers and pigments, and offers additional energy-cost and water-use savings compared to traditionally-dyed plastics.
Our founders have been working together for nearly 5 years and offer a shared passion for sustainability and experience in entrepreneurship, synthetic biology, and biochemistry. Our vision is for biomaterials to replace the toxic, petroleum-derived chemicals and materials that are difficult to recycle and contribute to many of our world’s environmental and human health issues. Over 1000 hours of market discovery has helped build a network of partners throughout the supply chain, and we have already begun working with several plastic converters and brands to develop colored PHA-based biopolymer blends to increase awareness of PHAs, stimulate demand for our materials, and create an early supplemental revenue stream (as seen in our LOSs/LOIs). A kilogram scale pilot is a critical next step in our technology and business development, and will lend itself to getting more user feedback, validating that our material is comparable to/better than what is available on the market, providing significant sample volumes for continued formulation and compounding with our partners, and identifying inefficiencies that occur when scaling a manufacturing process.
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