KSA Business: Polymeron wins the $1m Omniprenuership Award – Gulf Digital News

KSA Business: Polymeron wins the $1m Omniprenuership Award – Gulf Digital News

Polymeron, which created an innovative solution to convert poultry bio-waste to renewable and valuable source, has won the 2020 $1 million grand prize at the Omniprenuership Award (Sustainability).

Polymeron had developed a technology to make environment-friendly biodegradable composite material from biochar. This innovative material will address plastic pollution and poultry waste and at the same time enrich soil quality which will help Tanmiah Food Company (TFC) reduce its carbon footprint. Polymeron is one of the startups from the ‘Taqadam’ accelerator programme of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Kaust).

The award has been instituted under the patronage of the Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Eng Abdul Rahman bin Abdul Mohsen Al-Fadley.

Processing farm waste

The focus of this challenge was to find a solution that will process chicken farm waste in a cost-effective, commercially viable manner to create a positive impact on TFC as a corporate entity, on the environment in Saudi Arabia and ultimately the global ecosystem.

Nearly 93 competitors worldwide have participated in the grand challenge. The other four shortlisted organisations for this challenge were: Insectum from Kaust, Proteinea from Egypt and the US, Greenfield from South Korea, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University from China.

Commenting on the announcement, TFC's CEO,