We want you! to help us optimize our apple leather making process. This is an opportunity to be a part of a young, driven team that is working to change the way we make and use our things. A sustainable future! Let's make an industrial scale, biodegradable, high performance material that is strong and useful! -made from food waste! You'll work with us in the lab at Symbion in Østerbro and at Teknologisk Institut in Taastrup. There is possibility for payment through grant schemes.

** This is a posting for an unpaid internship. There is the possibility of future salaried employment **

Production engineer

Video Pitch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29vGM7EghtA&t=1s

Company Size: We're a startup with 2 founders, 2 employees, several mentors, researchers and suppliers.

Product: We sell an alternative to leather by the meter.

Development Stage: MVP

BACKGROUND

We turn apples into leather.

We're a B2B biotechnology company upcycling resource streams in food production. 

Today there's a need for alternative materials. Traditional material producers overlook waste management and use harmful ingredients, affecting agriculture, livestock, and consumer wellbeing. Customers have warranted health and sustainability concerns. To address these issues in a circular economy context we upcycle tons of food waste accumulated in pressing apples for cider and juice. Users of our product gain an upgraded material experience with original Apple Leather. It's 100% biodegradable-in-nature "leather" Apple Material. This is the future - a new circular alternative to conventional animal leather, paper packaging, or even plastic. Apple Material can be both rigid or highly flexible with an enchanting handle and unique story. Apple can be thick or thin, and it has the potential to be used across industries. We have 5 materials in our portfolio with different tactilities and colors.

When we add a textile for durability and a coating, the material becomes recyclable. The apple base is still biodegradable.

Apple Leather has all the qualities of animal leather with none of the costs to the environment and workers health. Our simple process, using the waste in juice and cider production is cost-effective. We acquire this waste directly from the producer for a low cost by the ton. To turn animal skin into leather it takes over 20 steps in 10 days. Our process takes only 5 steps, complete in just 1 day. With these facts we could produce our material even cheaper and faster than the leather industry produces animal leather. Furthermore, no animals are harmed in our production, and we use only eco-friendly chemicals and ingredients. Our material has the potential to be the first 100% biodegradable alternative to animal leather on the market.

We are founded on the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development goals, specifically #12 Responsible Production and Consumption and #13 Climate Action.

The invention is protected with patent, something you could also be involved in, based on new technologies we develop in the production process and in the recipe. 

TASKS

Optimization of systems and processes

You love structure? Building and following a systematic experiment schedule? Want to be part of something huge? New materials made from food waste? We have the job for you.

Get Apple Material ready for use as a leather alternative!

• Build industrial scale production of a wet slurry process. 

• Conduct process experiments for optimization in industrial scale.

• Find out how to form the wet slurry product into sheets in a cost effective and easy way.

• Take part in instrument maintenance and instrument qualification in collaboration with Teknologisk Institut's laboratory technicians and other knowledge providers.

• Source industrial equipment for scaling that is cost-effective like cooking vats, stirring machines and compression molding machines.

You are:

• Knowledgable in production technology, fibers and fiber distribution, physics, and paper industry experience is a plus.

• You're quick. Builder type that understands physics and is not defeated at the prospect of a challenge.

• Driven to execute.

• Structured, pragmatic, and tenacious!

• You have an analytical and determined mind-set, and you can work independently.

• Knowledge of industrial food production and textiles is a plus.

• It is important that you communicate well and can build relations in our small but very diverse team with different cultures and educational backgrounds.

• You are the contact to certain knowledge providers.

We can offer you: a fun work environment with cake, free hot cocoa or coffee/tea, lunch, and did we mention lots of cake?!!