Gamechangers

Bacteria in wastewater naturally produce bioplastic that can fully break down in nature through the same bacteria. The Frisian company Paques Biomaterials aims to take over the market for alternatives to fossil-based plastics with this innovation.

Finding a biodegradable replacement for polyester in clothing is seen as the holy grail in the fight against plastic pollution. Dutch R&D company Senbis aims to bring such a solution to market by 2030, marking the first time artificial intelligence (AI) will be used to significantly speed up the entire development process.

In Europe, 20 million tons of non-recyclable paper and cardboard are incinerated annually. The Dutch company Recell is pioneering an alternative by converting these materials into sugars for bioplastics, promoting greener chemistry. Following the success of its demonstration facility in the Netherlands, Recell plans to construct a new factory, at least ten times larger.

Lactic acid is widely used in food, cleaning products, solvents, shampoos, and creams—and it can also be used to make bioplastic. For example, from lactic acid derived from sugar beets. Start-up Nature’s Principles has developed a cheaper, more efficient, and safe technology for this purpose.

You load household, industrial, or agricultural waste into a reactor, heat it to over 1,000 degrees, and produce usable raw materials like syngas, carbon, minerals, and metals. DOPS Recycling Technologies aims to bring this technology to market.

Currently, only a small portion of plastic from electronics, computers, cars, snack bags, or showerheads is recycled into clean, new raw materials. Start-up Resolved Technologies has found a solution to this problem—literally: dissolving plastic in a solvent. Next year, a pilot plant at the Chemelot chemical complex will start recycling 25 kilos of plastic per hour using this method.

Each of these trailblazers is working tirelessly to develop renewable resources for the chemical industry: Recell®, ReSolved Technologies, Senbis Polymer Innovations B.V., Nature’s Principles, and DOPS Recycling Technologies BV. To help them grow faster and guide them through the infamous "valley of death," these five green startups spent the last 200 days participating in the Green Chemistry Accelerator.

Dops, Senbis, Nature’s Principles, Resolved, and Recell have been selected as promising game changers for the green transformation of the chemical industry in the second edition of the Green Chemistry Accelerator program.

Relement offers a biobased alternative for a key fossil-based ingredient in paint, adhesives, and other binding agents. The potential is immense. “We’ve calculated that we can save around 3 kilograms of CO₂ per kilogram of product over the entire lifecycle,” says co-founder Roger Blokland. However, there’s one challenge: scaling up as a chemical start-up isn’t easy. So how is it working out?

Butadiene is a key raw material for plastics and rubber, used in products like LEGO bricks and car tires. Currently, it is derived from petroleum, but start-up ETB Global has developed a way to produce it from bio-ethanol, an alcohol made from plant residues.

There is no waste, only resources, says Torwash. The start-up uses patented TNO technology to convert sewage sludge, agricultural residues, vegetable waste, and mixed plastics into biofuel, biogas, and raw materials for new biodegradable plastics.

Now that Russia has halted its fertilizer exports, the Dutch startup SusPhos is receiving inquiries from around the world to supply its recycled phosphate—an essential raw material for fertilizer. CEO and founder Marissa de Boer hopes to raise tens of millions of euros to build a new factory that will extract 50 million kilograms of phosphate annually from incinerated sewage sludge.

By 2050, chemical company Dow aims to achieve net-zero CO2 emissions and minimize reliance on new fossil raw materials for the production of plastics and base chemicals. This means becoming fully circular and climate-neutral, with Dow Terneuzen playing a pivotal role in the journey.

Developing alternative bioplastics that can break down in nature and water—that’s the mission of Senbis. From fishing gear to artificial grass fields, the company works on innovations. Sometimes, petroleum-based plastics turn out to be more biodegradable than those made from biomass. The holy grail is finding a well-biodegradable alternative to polyester in clothing, which is largely responsible for polluting our oceans.

The Groningen-based company Foamplant is the first and only business in the world to produce foam that is fully biodegradable and recyclable. According to CEO Martin Tietema, this is the material of the future: a solution to the massive waste piles created by plastic foam and an alternative to fossil-based raw materials in the chemical industry, which must eventually be phased out.

A computer using artificial intelligence (AI) to predict and prevent incidents and accidents in the chemical industry—this is the promise of a pilot project for an "early warning system" being tested at AnQore on the Chemelot chemical complex. The results suggest it’s possible.