COATING-FREE CONTROLLED RELEASE
Fertiliser
that waits.
We formulate NPK granules that release their nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium gradually across a season instead of all at once — held in a biodegradable bio-based matrix, with no polymer coating anywhere in the bead.
slower nutrient release over two months
Measured in our own release testing against a conventional granule. The full basis — daily release points, both curves, the statistics — we walk through in person.
THE CHEMISTRY
Release comes from the matrix, not from a shell.
Conventional controlled-release fertiliser wraps a nutrient core in a polymer coating and lets the coating meter the release. We removed that step: the nutrients sit inside the material itself.
A biodegradable matrix
The nutrients are held throughout the bead itself, in a bio-based matrix that is fully biodegradable. No shell, no plastic layer, nothing engineered to outlast the season.
Release you can tune
Erosion and diffusion set the curve, and we set how fast it runs — the same bead can be built to feed a longer or a shorter season. Granules are 3–5 mm, in the range broad-acre spreaders already handle.
Zero microplastics
Once the nutrients are gone, the matrix itself breaks down completely. Coated products shed polymer fragments that persist season after season; ours leave nothing behind to accumulate.
WHY NOW
In October 2028 the coating stops being legal.
Regulation (EU) 2019/1009, with the criteria set by Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/2770, requires the polymers used in EU fertilising products to be biodegradable from 17 October 2028 — and the EU's microplastics restriction is closing the same door from the other side. Every coated controlled-release product on the European market has to re-engineer its coating before then.
Re-engineer the coating — new polymers, new trials, 48-month degradation testing.
There is no coating to re-engineer. Compliance is a property of the material.
FOR PRODUCERS
We license the chemistry. You keep the plant, the brand and the volume.
No new line
The beads are made by standard drum wet granulation — the rotary equipment already installed in fertiliser plants. Removing the coating step removes the most capital-intensive part of controlled-release manufacturing.
IP and know-how
You get the formulation, the process parameters and hands-on transfer support. We are a research company and stay one — we do not build capacity and we do not compete with our licensees.
Clear structure
A technology-access fee, payments tied to development milestones, and a royalty per tonne produced. Terms are agreed per territory and per crop segment.
WHERE WE ARE
Lab-stage, and specific about it.
Zealand Scientific is a two-person research company in Haslev, Denmark, working full-time on one question: how far the release curve can be pushed without a coating. We are at TRL 4 — validated in the laboratory, not yet in the field.
25+ composite formulations synthesised, with in-house release-measurement capability built alongside them.
In-vitro release curves against commercial products, plus documented erosion of the bead itself.
Benchmark release testing against leading coated products, and mechanical validation of the granule.
Patent filing, then pilot-scale production on a partner's line ahead of the 2028 deadline.
THE TEAM
Who you'll be dealing with.
Radoslav Bonk, PhD
Runs the commercial side — licensee conversations, funding, and the benchmark testing programme that turns results into evidence a producer can act on. Previously raised €2.5M+ for an earlier agritech venture.
Mads K. von Borries, PhD
Doctorate in polymer formulation; previously at Cirqle Biomedical. Designs the matrix, synthesises the formulations and runs the release measurements behind every curve we show.
If you make fertiliser, we should talk before 2028.
Producers, formulators, investors and research partners — one address reaches both founders.