‘It is time for us to take responsibility for our electronics and the impacts that they are having on the planet. Jiva will ensure that Soluboard is the catalyst in the much needed reform of the PCB industry.”- Jack Herring
Jack Herring has always had an interest in the effect of recycling on the environment. Following an education in architecture, he studied and researched product design at the Royal College of Art in London. The 25 year old’sinterest in improving environmental problems was well suited to his tutor’s brief,requiring him to choose a waste stream to optimise.Herring chose e-waste—the fastest growing waste stream in the world, with an estimated 50 million tonnes of it expected to be generated this year. Herring invented Soluboard, the world’s first fully recyclable printed circuit board laminate in an attempt to reduce the impact of waste electronics on the planet.
Herring was looking for a name with biological energy and the Sanskrit “Jiva” encapsulated everything he was searching for. The InnovationRCA Fund set up by the Royal College of Art helped Herring turn his innovation into a start-up named “Jiva Materials Limited”.
Presently, the two materials in PCBs are fibreglass and epoxy, meaning that the only way they can be recycled in order to extract the precious metals within involves a process of shredding and incineration. Jiva has developed a non-hazardous and fully biodegradable flax based alternative—the patent-pending Soluboard delaminates when immersed in hot water, allowing electronic components to be recovered from the safely disposable or compostable flax solution. It is equivalent mechanically and electrically to the current market leading substrate used in PCB manufacturing.
Together with Dr Jonathan Swanson, a techno-entrepreneur with previous experience in chemical and polymer business, they are targeting the white goods and domestic appliance sectors including dishwashers, fridges and washing machines etc. Jiva will be marketing Soluboard to the European white goods and domestic appliance sectors with scope to expand to the US market in the near future. The manufacturers of these products already have well established recovery schemes in place, allowing for Soluboard PCBs to be removed and recycled.
Soluboard is patent pending internationally and Jiva will be filing for protection within individual territories before the end of year. It is expected that Soluboard will be covered by patents globally by the end of 2021.
Jiva was recently successful in securing a £563,000 grant from the department for UK Research and Innovation. The project will be focused on developing the continuous production of Soluboard within the UK and it is expected to generate a total of 25 jobs. Jiva currently sources the flax fibres used in Soluboard from France although the company will be researching into other UK grown natural fibres that could replace these. This is particularly relevant at this point in time considering the uncertainty that Brexit is bringing.
Jiva is currently closing a seed fundraising round with a lead investor of Sky Ocean Ventures. The £25 million fund was set up by the British media and telecommunications company to support companies that are developing products, materials and business models that will create meaningful change for the environment.
Following a period of optimisation and testing, Soluboard will be available for orders by the middle of 2020. Soluboard will be sold in the standard sheet sizes used within the PCB industry and it is expected that 42,000 square metres of Soluboard will be manufactured within that same year. This is only about 2% of the current material used in UK white goods every year.
The logical progression from Soluboard PCBs in white goods is to higher end products such as laptops and mobile phones—the future is flax.