HopfON founding team

Hops as a circular building material

The two students soon learned that hops stem from the same plant family as hemp, which has become increasingly important as a building material in recent years. “We started gathering more information about this plant – and what actually happens to the waste material from hop cultivation,” says Marlene Stechl. In architecture and design professor Niklas Fanelsa, they find a supporter who not only contributes his scientific expertise, but also gives the team access to the Bioregional Design Lab at TUM and thus enables further material tests.

Because only a small percentage of the hop harvest is used for beer production, Stechl and Sonderegger came up with the idea of using also waste from hop farmers. “Along with the ecological benefits, this also saves costs,” says Stechl. The fibrous structure of hop plant lends tensile strength to the material, making it especially suitable for acoustic panels, insulation and structural boards. The woody cores of hops, known as shives, provide the material with additional compressive strength. Like hemp, hops also have good heat insulation characteristics. To validate the team’s chosen material, Marlene Stechl tested the flammability of the hop plant as part of her master’s thesis and found no cause for concern.

With their idea, Stechl and Sonderegger took part in the Urban Prototyping Lab of the TUM Chair of Architectural Informatics. Participants were invited to propose solutions to problems from the construction industry. After submitting their detailed concept, they were invited to apply for the 2022 TUM IDEAward. They won first prize, which came with 15,000 euros in start-up capital.

The TUM IDEAward attracted the attention of former business student Mauricio Fleischer Acuña, who soon joined the HopfON founding team. He was followed in 2023 by Matthias Steiger, a biochemist working on a doctorate at the Chair of Chemistry of Biogenic Resources, who is now developing further prototypes for HopfON. HopfON also received the TUM Booster Grant, which includes one year of funding worth 45,000 euros, and two prototyping grants from UnternehmerTUM, the Center for Innovation and Business Creation. The support through the TUM Start-up Consulting and the TUM Venture Labs is of such great help, especially when it comes to ramp up operations and founding the company in 2024, as Mauricio Fleischer Acuña explains. Another key pillar is the location: the world’s largest hop growing region, Hallertau, is on Munich’s doorstep.

The hop harvest in Hallertau in September 2023 proved to be a big challenge for the HopON team. “We didn’t have a clue about containers, trucking companies or drying sheds,” said Marlene Stechl. “First we had to familiarize ourselves with the entire logistics chain. That was true experimental work for us.” For example, we had to figure out the best way to separate the hops from the horizontal wires that the plants are trained along.

In their first harvest the founders got a lot of support from the farmers they worked with. Harvesting the plants for HopfON was also new territory for them. But they were happy to get involved. “It was just great. I had the feeling that you can count on an amazing response if you have a vision and share it,” says Stechl. With this energetic and creative support, the team was finally able to get a process up and running to secure enough raw material for production in the upcoming year. This was crucial, explains Mauricio Fleischer Acuña, as the hop harvest takes place only once a year.