FKuR: Award-winning water filter made from bioplastic

Filter unit from "Bio-Flex" S 9533 with active carbon from coconut shells

Soma is a new designer water filter made from natural resources. The bioplastic used for this filter is "Bio-Flex", a material developed by Fraunhofer Umsicht in cooperation with FKuR.

It all started with an "oops." When Mike Del Ponte, founder of Soma, hosted a dinner party, he was unwilling to place a cheap plastic water filter on his nicely set table. Instead, he decided to pour the filtered water into a glass wine decanter. But as he poured, the lid of the water pitcher fell off, causing water to gush all over the kitchen floor. The idea for Soma was born in this moment: to combine a pure, modern design with a sustainable and holistic approach. However, the requirements were not trivial.

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Soma Water filter: Glass carafe with water filter made from bioplastic

Soma’s designers spent a long time searching for a suitable material for the filter unit. This material needed to be functional, but also made from renewable resources and biodegradable when disposed of. Soma finally obtained what they were looking for from bioplastics specialist FKuR. The bioplastic "Bio-Flex" S 9533 used in the manufacture of the water filter has been developed in cooperation with Fraunhofer Umsicht and FKuR and is based on the bioplastic PLA (polylactic acid).

"For us it was important to develop a material running on conventional injection molding equipment," explains Hendrik Roch, Fraunhofer Umsicht. But pure PLA is rigid with relatively low impact strength. "By means of an intelligent additive package and our special compounding technology we have been able to develop a PLA compound meeting all requirements," says Carmen Michels, Managing Director of FKuR.

Soma Water filter: Glass carafe with water filter made from bioplastic
Photos: Soma, San Francisco, CA, USA

The filter unit is composed of a casing made from biodegradable "Bio-Flex" S 9533 and contains absorbent carbon derived from coconut shells. Customers receive a fresh filter from Soma every 60 days. For each filter sold, Soma donates to the nonprofit organization ‘charity: water’, which provides access to clean drinking water to people in need.

The filter is proven to reduce chlorine, taste and odor through its special filter system and fulfils all requirements of the NSF/ANSI standard 42 of the Water Quality Association. The Soma water filter with glass carafe has already received several awards.

About Soma
Founded in 2012 by Mike Del Ponte, (Sparkseed), Ido Leffler, (Yes To), and Rohan Oza, (vitaminwater & smartwater), the company launched a Kickstarter campaign in December 2012 that raised over $100,000 within the first nine days. In 2013, Inc. Magazine named Soma one of the "Most Audacious Companies" in the world and Fast Company called Soma one of the "Top Design Stories of 2012." Soma is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

About FKuR:
FKuR is one of the leading producers of Bioplastic-Compounds for flexible packaging solutions and technical applications. FKuR’s range of products includes the product lines "Bio-Flex", "Biograde", "Fibrolon", "Terralene" as well as the distribution of a variety of biobased products.

About Fraunhofer Umsicht:
The Biobased plastics department at Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety, and Energy Technology UMSICHT systematically develops bioplastics with a defined requirement profile based on renewable resources. These requirements often come from industrial partners. Fraunhofer UMSICHT has technical and scientific expertise, a comprehensive material analyses, and diverse variety of plastics processing options.

More information: fkur.com, fkur.com, www.umsicht.fraunhofer.de, drinksoma.com

FKuR Kunststoff GmbH, Willich

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