The Ultimate in Green Printing: Xerox Enables Customers to Grow Their Own

By Noel Ward, Executive Editor, Digital Printing Resource Center

Rochester, NY - April 1, 2008 - The ultimate in green toner is being developed in Rochester in association with the RIT School of Agriculture. As you may know, Xerox's EA toner, is "grown" using a chemical process, but the new toner being developed really is grown, and if the technology progresses as planned - you too, will be able to grow your own toner.

The new toner comes from plants that can be raised like a crop, in a garden, or even as house plants. The plants, which are a hybrid of the jade plant family, come in four pure process colors, cyan, magenta, yellow and black with leaves about 4" x 2" in size. The plants can grow to about 2 feet tall and can be harvested by simply pulling off the leaves. Up to 50% of each plant can be harvested about once a month thanks to the plants' fast growth rate. Monthly toner yield from a single plant is about 16 ounces.

The leaves are then washed, dried, and ground into a fine powder --about 5 microns-- that can be used directly as toner in the new iGen4green and is also compatible with standard Xerox EA toner. A new toner preparation module on the iGen4green allows customers to simply load harvested leaves into the machine, which then converts the leaves to toner in about 15 minutes. This can be done while the iGen is running, so there is no loss in productivity.

A different process involving baking the powder allows the plants to be processed into solid inks for use in Xerox's Phaser Inkjet printers. (Keep out of reach of children.)

"This technology enables customers to grow their own toner and always have a ready supply," says Eve R. Green, Xerox VP of Sustainable Printing. "Customers will be able to buy plants, plucked leaves or pre-packaged toner in any combination. Most customers will not move exclusively to the new toner but our early tests indicate customers will rely on the new plants for up to 30% of their toner usage. "

Still in the works is a means of adapting the process for consumers and small businesses. Because the plants can be grown almost anywhere and the leaves easily harvested, Xerox hopes to sell a kit for consumers and small businesses to raise and harvest their own toner plants and actually make their own toner and solid ink for desktop laser and for Phaser ink jet printers.

"Gone will be the days of running out of toner late at night," says Green. "Consumers will be able to pluck a few leaves off a plant, grind them up and reload their own toner. And the plants do add a lot of color to the home or office!"

While growing their own toner is not a solution for all customers, Xerox believes it is an option whose time has come. In fact, Xerox is entering into agreements with farmers to grow toner plants, rotating land used for other crops such as tobacco and fuel corn. And because the toner can easily be grown indoors, even old warehouse space can be used. Xerox sources say some unused buildings on its Webster, NY campus may actually be converted to indoor toner farms, not surprising since the company also has a state-of the art chemical toner manufacturing facility in Webster.

"It is the ultimate in sustainable printing," notes Aaron Arbor, professor of techniculture at RIT. Techniculture is RITs term for technically enhanced agriculture. "The jade hybrid toner plants are just the beginning. We have much larger species under development. We also have trees coming as well, hopefully in about 3 years. Imagine cyan, magenta, yellow and black palm trees and you get the idea. They can produce a lot of toner! We may even have plant hybrids that grow solid ink like a fruit. But that's a little further out"

Right now, the jade plant hybrids live about 12 months and are not self-propagating, so new ones must be acquired. They are only available directly from Xerox, as seeds, seedlings and young plants. Cost for the plants is not yet finalized. However, sources at Xerox say the total cost of ownership of plants and printers combined will be slightly lower than for the equivalent amount of EA toner, plus customers will enjoy growing their own.