Evonik and AMSilk extend part­ner­ship for sus­tain­able biotech silk materials

Essen and Neur­ied, Ger­many. Evonik and AMSilk, a glob­al lead­er in advanced bio­ma­ter­i­als based on silk pro­teins, have deepened their col­lab­or­a­tion with a long-term agree­ment to pro­duce sus­tain­able silk pro­teins at indus­tri­al scale. Build­ing on their ini­tial man­u­fac­tur­ing agree­ment from 2023, the com­pan­ies have com­mis­sioned a man­u­fac­tur­ing line at Evonik’s Slov­aki­an site for AMSilk’s high-per­form­ance silk. This innov­at­ive bio­ma­ter­i­al is pro­duced with min­im­al envir­on­ment­al impact and is designed for use in premi­um fash­ion and highly demand­ing auto­mot­ive interiors.

“Our col­lab­or­a­tion with AMSilk is a power­ful example of how togeth­er we can shape the future of mater­i­als through bio­tech­no­logy. By scal­ing pro­duc­tion of sus­tain­able silk pro­teins, we are not only expand­ing our port­fo­lio of pre­ci­sion biosolu­tions — we are cre­at­ing solu­tions that enhance life and redefine what’s pos­sible,” said Guido Skud­larek, Head of the Health Care busi­ness line, Evonik.

Evonik has estab­lished a ded­ic­ated pro­duc­tion line at its biotech pro­duc­tion hub in Slov­akia. Equipped with advanced infra­struc­ture, upgraded sys­tems, and renew­able energy, the facil­ity enables con­sist­ent monthly out­put of sev­er­al tons of AMSilk’s high-per­form­ance silk pro­teins. Tailored to AMSilk’s pro­cess require­ments, the line meets cer­ti­fied indus­tri­al qual­ity stand­ards for spin­ning-grade bio­ma­ter­i­als and sup­ports the Company’s mar­ket entry phase.

Ctibor Kohutovic, Chief Pro­duc­tion Officer at AMSilk added: ​“Build­ing on our earli­er suc­cess­ful cooper­a­tion with Evonik as a trus­ted part­ner, we have signed this agree­ment and jointly designed a ded­ic­ated, spe­cial­ized man­u­fac­tur­ing line for the pre­ci­sion fer­ment­a­tion of AMSilk’s bio­ma­ter­i­als, provid­ing increased out­put and effi­ciency, along­side reduced mater­i­al unit cost. This lays the found­a­tion for the next phase of our growth while ensur­ing reli­able sup­ply for our customers.”

AMSilk trans­forms the silk pro­tein powder pro­duced by Evonik into high-per­form­ance yarns, which offer premi­um pro­duc­tion qual­ity and reg­u­lat­ory com­pli­ance, includ­ing full sup­ply chain trans­par­ency from European man­u­fac­tur­ing. AMSilk’s bio­ma­ter­i­als are designed with sus­tain­ab­il­ity at their core. Vegan, bio­de­grad­able and derived from renew­able plant-based car­bon, these bio­ma­ter­i­als leave no micro­plastics at the end of their life­cycle. AMSilk addresses a total pro­tein fiber mar­ket — includ­ing silk, cashmere, and merino – val­ued at approx­im­ately €26 bil­lion. With­in this, the Com­pany tar­gets a €16 bil­lion ser­vice­able market.

Draw­ing on deep expert­ise in fer­ment­a­tion, from strain devel­op­ment and pro­cess optim­iz­a­tion to large-scale man­u­fac­tur­ing, Evonik helps innov­at­ors scale dis­rupt­ive tech­no­lo­gies in the life sci­ences industry includ­ing phar­ma­ceut­ic­al excipi­ents, per­son­al care, advanced foods and nature-identic­al mater­i­als. With over 4,000 m³ of CDMO fer­ment­a­tion capa­city across sites in the US and Europe, Evonik serves as a glob­al one-stop-shop for biotech pro­duc­tion, sup­port­ing pro­jects of any scale and complexity.

Evonik lever­ages bio­tech­no­logy to deliv­er high-value, sus­tain­able solu­tions across diverse mar­kets, expand­ing its port­fo­lio of pre­ci­sion biosolu­tions. Its col­lab­or­a­tion with AMSilk reflects a shared belief in biotechnology’s poten­tial to unlock trans­form­at­ive altern­at­ives to fossil-based products and reduce envir­on­ment­al impact across indus­tries. Bio­tech­no­logy often uses renew­able raw mater­i­als, oper­ates under milder con­di­tions, and can gen­er­ate few­er emis­sions and waste, mak­ing it in many cases more sus­tain­able than fossil-based or con­ven­tion­al chem­ic­al processes.

Evonik: Lead­ing bey­ond chem­istry
Evonik goes bey­ond the bound­ar­ies of chem­istry with its com­bin­a­tion of innov­at­ive strength and lead­ing tech­no­lo­gic­al expert­ise. The glob­al chem­ic­al com­pany, headquartered in Essen, Ger­many, is act­ive in more than 100 coun­tries and gen­er­ated sales of €15.2 bil­lion and earn­ings (adjus­ted EBITDA) of €2.1 bil­lion in 2024. The com­mon motiv­a­tion of the approx­im­ately 32,000 employ­ees: to provide cus­tom­ers with a decis­ive com­pet­it­ive advant­age with tail­or-made products and solu­tions as a super­force for industry, thereby improv­ing people’s lives. In all mar­kets. Every day.

About Cus­tom Solu­tions
The Cus­tom Solu­tions seg­ment focuses on innov­a­tion-driv­en, tail­or-made solu­tions for cus­tom­ers in spe­cif­ic growth mar­kets. These solu­tions include addit­ives for coat­ings, adhes­ives and seal­ants, poly­ureth­ane foams and lub­ric­ants, cata­lysts, and ingredi­ents for the cos­met­ics, clean­ing and phar­ma­ceut­ic­al indus­tries. In 2024, the seg­ment gen­er­ated sales of €5.7 bil­lion with around 7,000 employees.