Gramitherm – Insulation panels made out of grass!

The family of grasses covers a quarter of all land on earth, meadows cover ~20% of the European territory. Grass appears to be one of the most abundant biomass resource while also being one of the most underutilized. Unlike hemp or flax, grass does not need dedicated farmland and presents lot of value opportunities. Its regeneration cycle only lasts a few weeks, which makes it a huge carbon trapper !

Gramitherm only uses grass that does not have any other commercial uses. Therefore, they do not compete with grass that is used for animal feed. As such, they are well-positioned in the green economy, since they create value from something that would otherwise be wasted. For example, they use grass from airports in the Netherlands and other countries.

Gramitherm’s production process is “smart”. When they cut the grass, they separate the fibers, which they use, from the liquids. These liquids, the “grass juice”, is used as a supplementary fuel in anaerobic digestion. The biogas produced from the process is then recovered and supplies all the energy the process needs to dry and treat the fiber before it is “topped” and paneled. The low embodied energy produced during the production process combined with the significant uptake of CO2 by the grass as it grows makes Gramitherm carbon-negative over its life cycle: 1kg of Gramitherm put on the market absorbs the equivalent of 1,405 kg of CO2 (study done by the University of Zurich / 2015).

To know more about Gramitherm, visit their website: http://gramitherm.ch/