Renew­able Mater­i­als Con­fer­ence 2025: Nom­in­ees for the Innov­a­tion Award & Final Pro­gramme Unveiled

The Renew­able Mater­i­als Con­fer­ence (RMC), organ­ised by the nova-Insti­tute, will present lead­ing solu­tions and innov­a­tions for repla­cing fossil car­bon with bio­mass, CO₂ util­isa­tion and recyc­ling. The grow­ing suc­cess of RMC demon­strates that its unique concept of present­ing all solu­tions for renew­able mater­i­als at a single event is prov­ing suc­cess­ful. In just a few years, the con­fer­ence has estab­lished itself as the glob­al meet­ing place for the renew­able car­bon eco­nomy. Dur­ing the con­fer­ence, the win­ner of the innov­a­tion award ​“Renew­able Mater­i­al of the Year 2025” will be elec­ted by the audience.

RMC cov­ers the entire value chain from altern­at­ive car­bon feed­stocks, the chem­ic­al industry, the mater­i­als sec­tor, product man­u­fac­tur­ers to brand own­ers, as well as investors and policy makers. The last con­fer­ence in June 2024 attrac­ted nearly 500 par­ti­cipants from 32 coun­tries, 90 % of them from the indus­tri­al sec­tor. This year more than 500 par­ti­cipants are expec­ted to attend 75 present­a­tions, 20 pan­el dis­cus­sions and up to 12 workshops.

Detailed inform­a­tion on the con­fer­ence can be found here.

Five highly rel­ev­ant con­fer­ence topics

Defos­sil­isa­tion of the Chem­ic­al Industry

More than 90 % of the car­bon embed­ded in chem­ic­als and plastics is fossil car­bon from the ground, which needs to be replaced with bio­gen­ic, cap­tured and recycled car­bon. Chem­ic­al com­pan­ies, start-ups and industry asso­ci­ations will present their con­cepts, strategies and suc­cess stor­ies for the future of a sus­tain­able and com­pet­it­ive chem­ic­al and plastics industry. Top­ics include altern­at­ive feed­stocks, altern­at­ive naph­tha, elec­tric crack­er and non-crack­er com­mod­ity pro­duc­tion via meth­an­ol and eth­an­ol, bio­tech­no­logy and biore­finer­ies and more. This ses­sion includes 14 present­a­tions, with five addi­tion­al talks focus­ing on ligno­cel­lu­losic biore­finer­ies and lignin utilisation.

Fine Chem­ic­als

The glob­al fine chem­ic­als mar­ket, val­ued at US$ 180 bil­lion, is exper­i­en­cing a surge in demand for bio-based solu­tions. Because fine chem­ic­als are high-value and spe­cial­ised ingredi­ents for essen­tial products such as phar­ma­ceut­ic­als, cos­met­ics, per­son­al care products, food addit­ives, etc., their demand remains inde­pend­ent of eco­nom­ic cycles. Advances in bio­tech­no­logy and biocata­lys­is are driv­ing the devel­op­ment of high-pur­ity com­pounds and sus­tain­able pro­cesses. Over­com­ing chal­lenges such as scalab­il­ity and cost effect­ive­ness is expec­ted to unlock the mar­ket poten­tial in this trans­ition. Fine chem­ic­als com­pan­ies will present their achieve­ments and latest devel­op­ments in six presentations.

Fossil-free Plastics

95 % of all plastics today are derived from fossil car­bon from the ground – glob­ally 4 % are derived from recyc­ling and 1 % from bio­mass. There is a grow­ing demand for fossil-free plastics in sev­er­al product groups. Start-ups and estab­lished com­pan­ies will present their poly­mer and plastic innov­a­tions based on bio­mass, cap­tured CO₂ and recyc­ling. These include pack­aging, con­sumer goods, auto­mot­ive, tex­tiles and high-per­form­ance applic­a­tions. With 22 present­a­tions, the con­fer­ence will provide brand own­ers with a unique insight into altern­at­ives to fossil plastics. They will bene­fit from cross-sec­tor­al dis­cus­sions and net­work­ing. As part of this ses­sion, the six selec­ted nom­in­ees will com­pete for the ​“Renew­able Mater­i­al of the Year 2025” Innov­a­tion Award.

Set­ting the Frame for Renew­able Carbon

The main object­ive of the Green Deal is to move from a lin­ear to a cir­cu­lar eco­nomy – redu­cing the fossil mater­i­al use and cut­ting down on waste. The concept of sus­tain­able car­bon cycles was intro­duced by the European Com­mis­sion in 2022 and is becom­ing increas­ingly influ­en­tial for future reg­u­la­tions and legis­la­tion. Which policy and eco­nom­ic frame­work is needed to sup­port and guide the trans­ition to renew­able car­bon? Elev­en present­a­tions, pan­el dis­cus­sions and work­shops will tackle this topic.

Bio­de­grad­a­tion 

Bio­de­grad­able plastics are a com­plex and con­tro­ver­sial issue. The key ques­tion is no longer wheth­er bio­de­grad­able plastics are a good solu­tion, but in which applic­a­tions bio­de­grad­ab­il­ity makes sense. This is already reflec­ted in the new Pack­aging and Pack­aging Waste Reg­u­la­tion (PPWR), which will make bio­de­grad­ab­il­ity man­dat­ory for the first applic­a­tions. In elev­en present­a­tions and an accom­pa­ny­ing work­shop, start-ups, com­pan­ies and sci­ent­ists will provide in-depth inform­a­tion on per­cep­tion, sci­entif­ic and polit­ic­al devel­op­ments rel­ev­ance and impact, applic­a­tions, bene­fits and risks.

Six Nom­in­ees for the Innov­a­tion Award ​“Renew­able Mater­i­als of the Year 2025”

Once again this year, the conference’s advis­ory board had to make a dif­fi­cult choice in select­ing the six most prom­ising mater­i­als from the list of many excel­lent sub­mis­sions for the ​“Renew­able Mater­i­als of the Year 2025” sponsored by Cov­estro (DE). Dur­ing the con­fer­ence, the audi­ence will elect the win­ner from the fol­low­ing nominees:

Bloom Biore­new­ables (CH): The First Ever White Lignin
Lignin has been tested in cos­met­ics for dec­ades due to its advanced anti-UV, anti­ox­id­ant and anti­mi­cro­bi­al prop­er­ties. How­ever, its use has been hampered by its dark col­our and odour. Bloom’s select­ive extrac­tion pro­cess can now extract lignin without degrad­a­tion, pre­serving it as it is found in a tree. Using break­through tech­no­logy, Bloom can now whiten this ultra-pure lignin while main­tain­ing the integ­rity of the lignin struc­ture. Bloom’s white lignin could be the key to unlock­ing the use of lignin as a mul­ti­func­tion­al ingredi­ent for sus­tain­able cos­met­ics. This cos­met­ic ingredi­ent will be launched in 2026.

Bor­regaard (NO): Innov­at­ive Plat­form Tech­no­logy Bright for Renew­able Lignin-based Biopoly­mers
Bright is an innov­at­ive plat­form tech­no­logy that enables the trans­ition from fossil car­bon poly­mers to renew­able lignin-based biopoly­mers. It tail­ors lignin prop­er­ties for dif­fer­ent applic­a­tions by pre­cisely adjust­ing the biopoly­mer charge and molecu­lar weight. Bright has intro­duced LignoBrite, the first lignin-based ingredi­ent for home care products such as dish­wash­ing deter­gents, which replaces per­sist­ent polycarboxylates, reduces white depos­its and improves shine.

Cyc­lize (DE): Mixed Waste and CO2 as Feed­stock to Pro­duce Syn­gas
Cyc­lize enables a cir­cu­lar eco­nomy of car­bon by using mixed waste and CO₂ as feed­stock to pro­duce syn­gas. Syn­gas is a key build­ing block in the chem­ic­al industry and is cur­rently pro­duced primar­ily from fossil sources. The pat­en­ted plasma reformer requires only a third of the elec­tric­al energy of elec­tro­lys­is. This advant­age makes the pro­duc­tion of syn­gas cost-com­pet­it­ive with fossil syn­gas. The syn­gas pro­duced by Cyc­lize can replace nat­ur­al gas and thus defos­sil­ise the chem­ic­al industry without a green premium.

Sci-Lume Labs (US): Bylon — a Scal­able, Cir­cu­lar, Bio­syn­thet­ic Poly­am­ide
Bylon is a scal­able, cir­cu­lar, bio­syn­thet­ic poly­am­ide from pro­tein-rich agri­cul­tur­al waste through a three-step chem­ic­al pro­cess. First, pro­tein hydro­lys­is breaks down the waste. Next, nov­el chem­istry at mild tem­per­at­ures val­or­ises the inter­me­di­ate into Bylon’s monomer – a reac­tion with >90 % monomer yield. Finally, ring-open­ing poly­mer­isa­tion cre­ates the Bylon poly­mer. Bylon is melt pro­cessed with a Tm of ~260˚C and a Tg of ~90˚C. The entire pro­duc­tion pro­cess uses exist­ing infra­struc­ture, offer­ing the scale and cost advant­ages of tra­di­tion­al pet­ro­chem­ic­al plastics with the added bene­fits of using bio­gen­ic car­bon and being degrad­able and recyc­lable at the end of its life.

Sus­tanix Mater­i­al­tech (NL): Repla­cing PFAS & Plastics in Paper Pack­aging
Stands for pro­pri­et­ary poly­mers and for­mu­la­tions for 100 % plant-based coat­ings and addit­ives with excel­lent hydro­phobic and oleo­phobic prop­er­ties, and proven indus­tri­ally recyc­lable. The new coat­ing tech­no­logy enables con­sumer brands and pack­aging com­pan­ies to com­ply with reg­u­la­tions on micro­plastics, PFAS and pack­aging waste. It offers a sus­tain­able altern­at­ive that is com­pat­ible with exist­ing machinery and scal­able to over 100 tonnes per month. Repla­cing PFAS, poly­ac­rylates, micro­plastics and styrene latex in paper pack­aging ensures safer food con­tact and a cir­cu­lar value chain.

Trinseo (IT): Next Gen­er­a­tion Recycled Con­tent-Con­tain­ing Acryl­ic Solu­tions
The next-gen­er­a­tion depoly­mer­isa­tion demon­stra­tion plant (June 2024) expands the types of acryl­ic waste that can be recycled. The plant uses a pro­pri­et­ary ther­mo­lys­is pro­cess to pro­duce recycled methyl methac­rylate (rMMA) that is over 99 % pure, mak­ing it a com­par­able sub­sti­tute for vir­gin feed­stock. The res­ult­ing poly­mer­ic recycled acryl­ic solu­tions have a 47 % reduc­tion in glob­al warm­ing poten­tial com­pared to the vir­gin coun­ter­part. Trinseo plans to scale up this tech­no­logy in the com­ing years.