Relement Introduces Biobased Raw Materials for Paint

'In the future, materials in chemistry will be biobased... It’s just a question of who will take those steps first,' says Guus Dubbink (Invest-NL). Credit: Adobe Stock

“In the future, materials in chemistry will be biobased. So, it’s clear this is going to happen one way or another. It’s just a question of who will take those steps first,” says Guus Dubbink, business developer at Invest-NL. This publicly funded impact investor helps innovative start-ups like Relement make their ambitions for scaling up financially viable. Sometimes Invest-NL invests directly, but in many cases, they help entrepreneurs overcome obstacles that prevent financing by market players.

According to Roger Blokland, CEO of Relement, we don’t need to look at large chemical companies to find the first movers. “My fundamental belief is that the chemical industry cannot change itself. They are completely locked into their existing business model.” That model is still based on cost reduction and scaling up. Therefore, innovation must come from start-ups. But it isn’t easy for them.

Back to the Time Before World War II

Relement is one of the start-ups with the potential to drastically change the chemical industry. It offers a better-performing biobased alternative for a key fossil ingredient in products like paint. The ingredient in question gives paint scratch resistance by providing a certain hardness: an aromatic compound. Instead of fossil petroleum, the start-up uses a renewable biobased raw material called furfural to make this ingredient. “What’s great about furfural is that it’s truly made from waste materials,” says Blokland. For example, waste from the sugar beet industry. “After extracting the sugar, you’re often left with fibers that don’t really have a use,” he explains. Unless you’re looking for furfural, which is found precisely in these fibers.

According to Blokland, sustainability trends in other sectors will bring more furfural in the coming years. For instance, cellulose fibers are rising as a replacement for cotton in the fashion industry. “Furfural is a byproduct that comes from that process, and it doesn’t have an immediate application. So we see it as an excellent raw material for the chemical industry.”

What Relement is doing with furfural is innovative, but the product itself is not new in chemistry. “We’re actually going back to the past,” says Blokland. “Furfural was widely used in the chemical industry before World War II but was replaced by fossil petroleum afterward.” Relement wants to bring this raw material out of obscurity by using it on a large scale in aromatics. “It’s a bit of a confusing name because everyone immediately thinks of fragrances.” Yet the name is fitting – the chemical compounds are similar. In Relement’s case, the aromatic compound provides hardness to a binding agent, which can be found in paint, adhesive, or insulation materials. The sustainability impact is substantial.

The Sustainable Impact of a Small Link in a Large Chain

“There is an incredible amount of paint used worldwide,” emphasizes Blokland. According to him, it’s about 50 million tons annually worldwide. “If you replace 30 to 40 percent with biobased materials, that’s a huge amount.” Blokland mentions these percentages for a reason. Aromatics make up 30 to 40 percent of the binding agent. “And the binding agent is the largest part of the paint.” There are some colorants and additives, but in terms of volume, the binding agent is the base.

To make paint more sustainable, you need to work with the raw materials, states Blokland. It’s challenging to recycle afterward. Often, paint ends up in the incinerator with the product it’s applied to. Think of cars or furniture: it’s hard to scrape off the paint to reuse it.

“We’ve calculated that we can save around 3 kilograms of CO₂ per kilogram of product over the entire lifecycle,” says Blokland. He counts from production to incineration. “So we’re talking about massive amounts. And, of course, we’re only at the beginning.” After paint, he wants to move on to adhesives, composite materials, and insulation foam. “Because all of those contain aromatic compounds as well.”

An Agricultural Machine Protected with Biobased Paint

Blokland notes that there is interest in his product. Relement is collaborating closely on a pre-commercial demonstration project with Worlée Chemie from Germany and Dutch family business Baril Coatings, which wants to include Relement’s biobased ingredient in its paint. “And they’d actually prefer it today rather than tomorrow,” says Blokland. This new paint will be tested by machinery company Tobroco Giant on their electric wheel loaders (also called shovels). Collaboration with other parties in the chain is crucial for a chemical start-up, stresses Blokland. “It’s not like a software company where you can quickly show a first version of a product to a customer.”

A chemical company must make the product or material so that a customer can test it. These tests are important because the material is often part of something bigger. The material has to work well with the other substances in a product. Think back to the paint. Relement’s ingredient is part of the binding agent, which in turn is part of the paint. So it must work well with the other substances in the binding agent, and this binding agent must then work well in the paint. “So you really need to find partners who think like you and genuinely want it. It shouldn’t just be a financial matter because that won’t work.”

Challenges Along the Way

A good product: check. Interested customers: check. But how do you ensure that the product actually reaches interested customers so they can test it on a larger scale? “The traditional way is to build your own pilot plant,” says Blokland. But that requires a lot of money. Invest-NL helped Relement explore how they could raise the capital for this, but they didn’t find a solution. So they changed strategies.

“Are there other ways to achieve the goal without immediately spending large sums?” summarizes Dubbink of their joint thought process. This led Relement and Invest-NL to the idea of outsourcing the production of the biobased ingredient via existing chemical (pilot) infrastructure. It yields the same result but without in-house production and the associated high investments. “It’s more expensive per kilogram of product but involves a lower capital investment,” says Dubbink. Invest-NL set up the process, helped draft the contract, and financed part of the project.

“At many other investors, you see that they want to identify a good investment to make money quickly,” says Blokland. He had a different experience with Invest-NL. “I think Invest-NL has more resources and capacity to guide companies that want to do good onto the right path.” Dubbink explains why this is: “Invest-NL is a government enterprise. Financial returns are not our primary goal, but rather driving social transition.”

Scaling Up Without an In-House Factory

“As Invest-NL, we find it important to help Relement as much as possible, but we’re also looking at the bigger picture. We’re also considering if this successful case can be applied to technologies currently being developed at universities,” says Dubbink. He hopes Relement’s experience will show young university start-ups that, after a successful first pilot, they don’t need tens of millions to build an initial factory. “It shows that you can make your ambitions financially viable in other ways, with less money.”

According to Blokland, it comes down to the business model you have in mind as a company and the reason why you want to build a factory. If you mainly want to prove that the product works and ultimately don’t want to become a manufacturing company but just want to sell the product, then an in-house factory might not be necessary – at least initially. “As long as you keep the end goal in mind. For example, we’ve created a factory design. We know where we want to go and what the costs would be if we were to build our own factory.”

The next step is trial production. The Belgian chemical company Solvay will handle this for Relement. “This is expected to take place in the first quarter of next year.” In 2024, Blokland hopes to bring the first commercial products to market. “If all goes well, Baril Coatings will then bring sustainable paint with our product to market.” As well as a few other parties that Blokland can’t name yet. By then, he also expects to work more closely with furfural producers. And perhaps he’ll have completed a new financing round. In short, he has a vision for his own company’s future. But what about the sector as a whole? When will chemistry be sustainable?

“That’s a question of conscience,” says Blokland. “When I see all the petroleum being processed, I think it’s not going fast enough.” He also keeps an eye on other innovative chemical companies, such as bioplastics company Avantium. He doesn’t see such parties as competitors. The market is big enough, and there’s much work to be done. “All these companies are developing alternatives to the raw materials the traditional chemical industry uses on a large scale. It’s going to happen; it’s just a matter of when.”

This article was previously published by Change Inc as part of a campaign in collaboration with Groene Chemie, Nieuwe Economie, with editor André Oerlemans. Read the entire series on our site or at Change Inc.