Back in 2024, we funded Antoinette Oni ‘s project to create thermal insulation boards from a composite based on abundant crop waste material available in the UK.

Last week, Antoinette emailed to tell us the impressive story of how things had progressed as a result of the initial experimental development of a straw board which our Idea Fund enabled. As is typical of early experimentation of an idea, it proved a struggle formulating a material that didn’t rely on a binder additive which compromises the circularity of the material. Fortunately, Antoinette was able to team up with a PhD scientist who had developed a way to make straw fibres self-bind into a strong, very durable board using rice straw. Together, they developed a thermal insulation board using local UK waste fibres and named it ‘WHEATEX’.

Antoinette told us: “Fast forward to now, we’ve had great success and opened a production facility in Cheshire where we take straw from local farmers and turn them into WHEATEX insulation boards. We’ve just retrofitted a 1850’s farm house with our material and we’re working with researchers from Cambridge University who’ve installed air quality sensors to verify our claims that natural fibre insulation has a positive impact on indoor air quality when compared to conventional, synthetic insulation. “

Wow! Every now and then early experimentation of an idea can lead to such success. We are delighted for Antoinette and her team and wish them well in the next exciting stages. You can read all about the new WHEATEX product here.