The jury of the TUM Ideaward has selected the three best startup ideas from all applications. The award winners cover a diverse range of topics.
TUM Ideaward: Prizes for sustainable building materials, a recycling reactor, and a plaster for cystitis
First place goes to Hopfon, whose idea is a building material made from hops. Architecture student Marlene Stechl and civil engineering student Thomas Rojas Sonderegger discovered that the fiber plant is an excellent raw material for acoustic panels, insulation materials, and building panels. Growing it in Germany could shorten transport routes in material production, thus reducing further greenhouse gas emissions. Since only a small portion of the hop harvest is used for beer production, the waste products could be utilized, which the team hopes will give them not only an ecological but also a cost advantage over the competition. Hopfon's goal is a product that can be disassembled into its components at the end of its lifespan, thus enabling circular use. In this way, the founding team aims to make both the construction industry and agriculture more sustainable.
Second place goes to Wasteex. Chemistry student Elias Hasel and Marc Xia, a doctoral student at the Department of Plant and Process Engineering, are developing a pyrolysis reactor for use in regions without recycling facilities. Pyrolysis involves breaking down materials in a thermochemical process at high temperatures. This allows oil to be recovered from plastic. Conventional systems are designed for industrialized mass processes, requiring operators with specialist knowledge. Wasteex's reactor, in contrast, is designed to be compact, modular, and easy to operate. The founding team sees not only ecological benefits but also the potential for new value chains in low-income regions – from the collection, sorting, and shredding of plastic to pyrolysis and the use of the oil for fuel.
Pavoo took third place in the TUM Ideaward. Cordula Loock, a student of pharmaceutical bioprocess engineering, and Christian Loock, a graduate of aerospace engineering, have developed a plaster that covers the urinary tract opening of women during sexual intercourse, thus preventing cystitis caused by the penetration of germs.
