Releaf Paper is a young industrial start-up born in Kiev in 2021 and now based in a nursery in the 13th arrondissement of Paris. One of its co-founders is Valentyn Frechka, also from Ukraine. Releaf Paper's activity is surprising: recycling plant waste and transforming it into a raw material for making paper.
Watching the leaves fall from the trees, Valentyn Frechka asked himself this question: don't leaves contain cellulose like tree wood? And they did. The young scientist went on to develop his project for producing paper from dead leaves, developing an innovative technology for which he filed a patent. Just three years after founding Releaf Paper, the 23-year-old entrepreneur is one of three finalists for the European Patent Office's (EPO) Young Inventor Award 2024.
One tonne of cellulose from 2.3 tonnes of dead leaves
The dead leaves collected are sorted, cleaned and subjected to a thermomechanical process involving grinding and high-pressure steam treatment without chemical solvents. The short-fibre pulp obtained is then mixed with recycled paper to provide a supply of long fibers and serve as raw material for the manufacture of a slightly brown paper. The resulting support is recyclable and degrades in just 30 days.
The manufacturing process, much more complex than the summary above, produces one tonne of cellulose from 2.3 tonnes of plant waste.
The Ile-de-France site should produce 5,000 tonnes of pulp a year
Thanks to a grant from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator, the start-up will begin setting up a pilot plant in Les Mureaux, Yvelines, in July.
"This pilot site is a first step. There will be subsequent sites" explains Bertrand Chevalier, Chairman and CEO of Releaf Paper. Dead leaves will be collected thanks to a partnership with INOE Bois, specialized in the supply of biomass fuel in Paris, the Yvelines and neighbouring departments within a 30 km radius. According to the start-up, 5,000 tonnes of pulp a year should be produced at the Paris site.
"Our aim is to supply French and European papermakers with our raw materials, so that they can incorporate them into their paper and cardboard recipes. In this way, we offer all papermakers the possibility of manufacturing more environmentally-friendly products", says Bertrand Chevalier.
Releaf Paper currently markets paper, packaging and writing pads manufactured by Ukrainian paper mills under its own name.
