Nfinite, an advanced materials company commercializing a breakthrough open-air roll-to-roll process for depositing ultra-thin highly conformal coatings, known as atmospheric pressure spatial atomic layer deposition (AP-SALD), has announced that it is receiving advisory services and funding of up to $3,874,516 CAD from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP). This support will enable the company to scale up its breakthrough thin film deposition platform from the lab and into commercialization, specifically for the packaging industry.

"Using our proprietary AP-SALD system, Nfinite has demonstrated novel barrier performance on paper," said Miguel Galvez, CEO at Nfinite. "A paper solution that has the same shelf-life barrier performance as metallized plastic has the potential to eliminate plastic from the flexible packaging industry."

According to Grand View Research, flexible packaging is currently a $270 billion dollar market. Additionally, paper-based alternatives give large consumer packaged goods (CPGs) companies more packaging choices in formats and materials that attract consumers and meet their sustainability goals, while still achieving performance and product shelf-life requirements.

As part of the grant, Nfinite will collaborate with three commercial partners: Amcor, PepsiCo, and Unilever – all of whom share the same mission in moving towards compostable and recyclable packaging solutions. The NRC IRAP funding continues for 3 years and will assist Nfinite in deploying its pilot production plant in Waterloo, Ontario. This support will also help the company finalize its first industrial production facility, which is expected to produce tens of millions of square meters of high barrier paper annually.

"Amcor is excited to be both an early-stage investor and a strategic collaboration partner to Nfinite on this groundbreaking project," said Michael Hartman, Senior Fellow, Emerging Material/Process Development at Amcor. "The AP-SALD technology developed by Nfinite has shown promising results able to create fiber-based flexible packaging. Together, we aim to advance towards more circular packaging solutions, and we look forward to working jointly on this exciting technology."

"At Unilever's Global Packaging R&D Centre, we're focused on developing alternatives to hard-to-recycle flexible plastics, which include alternative paper-based materials," said Mark Newman, Head of Packaging, Advanced Materials at Unilever. "We're collaborating with partners like Nfinite to develop the next generation of recyclable and compostable flexible packaging with ultra-thin barrier coatings that meet the performance needs of our broad portfolio. We look forward to continuing our work with Nfinite on this significant technical challenge as they continue to grow and scale."

"PepsiCo R&D started working with the Nfinite team while they were at the University of Waterloo, and in the short span of two years, they have made rapid progress from lab-scale technology to actual roll-to-roll coating implementation at different scales," said Sridevi Narayan-Sarathy, Technical Director / R&D Senior Fellow at PepsiCo. "Nfinite has the potential to make further significant progress in the development of compostable film and paper."

"Nfinite is thrilled to have been awarded this funding from NRC IRAP," said Galvez. "We are also grateful to all our commercial partners, for believing in our mission to eliminate single-use plastic flexible packaging and enable a more sustainable and circular future."