About Grass Wood

Grass Wood Business Idea

Brief description of the business idea:

• Creation of a large research and production center for implementing new organic fillers for wood-polymer composites (WPC) with thermoplastic matrices and the creation of new biodegradable materials of plant origin.
• Creation of several production facilities for organic fillers from various wastes for use in the production of wood-composite products and products from various plastics.
• In the future, organizing the production of polymer granules with various fillers with distinctive consumer properties for widespread use in the production of plastic products with organic fillers.
• The main processed raw materials are oat husks, hazelnut and walnut shells, industrial hemp fire.
• Supply geography: Russia, EU countries, Georgia, Azerbaijan.

The project was launched at the end of 2016, when the company management decided to create a separate enterprise to process oat husk into flour on the basis of «Archeda-Produkt», LLC.
At the initial stage it was supposed to solve the local issue - waste disposal from the main cereals production. Subsequently, a deep dive into the issues opened up the prospects of creating an innovative project in the field of organic waste recycling.

We encountered the following issue:

• Disposing of husks entails environmental damage and therefore fines and additional costs for the enterprise.
• The demand for oat husk in raw form is quite low.
• For processing into fuel briquettes husk has high ash content.
• As a feed, it can only serve as an additive in certain feeds because of the low content of feed units.

Solution

Establishment of the enterprise «Composit-Osnova», LLC on the territory of «Archeda-Produkt», LLC, registered under the «Grass Wood» trademark.
Prerequisites for organizing the production of flour from oat hulls:

• low humidity of raw materials (drying is not required);
• favorable chemical composition;
• high yields;
• low cost of raw materials;
• no logistics costs.

«Archeda-Produkt», LLC, a large producer of oat flakes on the RF and CIS market, faced the issue of recycling production waste.

• The company has been working on the Russian and CIS market since 1999.
• Production is located 830 km from Moscow in the village of Prigorodny, Frolovsky District, Volgograd Region.
• The enterprise processes 8 types of grain and beans.
• The range of products provided under the «Krupno» and «Delika» trademarks - 42 items, 15 types of products.

The enterprise generates up to 6,000 t of oat husks annually, most of which remain non-demanded. For that reason, «Composit-Osnova», LLC engaged in the processing of oat husks into flour, was created.
Flour production is located on land leased from «Archeda-Produkt», LLC, on the territory of the enterprise itself, which allows to minimize transportation costs.

Our advantages

1. Production efficiency
Highly efficient production technology of organic filler for polymer products, no logistics costs and almost zero cost of raw materials.


2. High added value
Return on investment - 6 months, providing the design capacity of the equipment used.


3. Solving the issue of waste management
Most of the waste from main production is taken to a landfill. Due to the tightening of environmental requirements, the costs of husk disposal are rising sharply. The implementation of the project completely saves the cost of husk removal and has an environmental effect, since husk often burns in landfills, polluting the environment.

History of the company's development

1. Preparatory stage
December 2015. Trial milling at «Doza Gran», LLC. It was decided to set up an enterprise to process oat husk into flour.
August 2016. Registration of «Composit-Osnova», LLC.


2. Equipment selection and technology testing
October 2017. . For all grades of flour the following certificates were obtained: Certificate of conformity GOST-R, certificate of fire and explosion hazards, test protocol, specifications.


3. Conducting experimental and development work
March 2018. A certificate for the trademark «Grass Wood» was obtained.
June 2018. Samples of boards made of WPC* and castings made of flour M560** were received.
September 2018. Positive test results were received for decking with the use of oat husk flour.
December, 2018. The contract on supply of flour M250 for «Ay-Tekhplast», LLC was concluded, the research and development work with the Scientific and Innovation Center «Wood-Polymer Composites» on production of casting pellets based on polypropylene with filler of flour from oat husk was carried out.


4. Starting and setting up production
November 2019. Launch, adjustment and testing of the oat husk flour production line («Adamant», LLC).
December 2019. Crusher failure, analysis of the causes of failure, repair and fine-tuning of the equipment.
March 2020. Resumption of experimental production.
April 2020. It was decided to purchase a new mill (ultra-rotor).


5. Modernization of equipment
March 2021. Installation and start-up of the ultra rotor crusher. In the end, the most suitable equipment was selected and production was started. The installed equipment is used to organize the production of flour from oat hulls. Experimental batches of flour from industrial hemp shoves and shells of walnut and hazelnut were produced for the study of physico-chemical composition and consumer properties

.