Sus­tain­able solu­tions take cen­ter stage as Noury­on announces 2019 Ima­gine Chem­istry winners

Two over­all win­ners were awar­ded joint devel­op­ment agree­ments (JDA): Sironix Renew­ables (USA) received a JDA from Noury­on and Ima­gine Chem­istry part­ner Uni­lever for its tech­no­logy to make sur­fact­ants from plants; and Ionomr (Canada) received a JDA from Noury­on for its eco-friendly mem­brane tech­no­logy. Six oth­er groups will receive the fol­low­ing awards: 

• Ingu Solu­tions (Canada) – sup­ply agree­ment with Noury­on for its mini­atur­ized pipeline sensors
• RISE (Sweden) – research agree­ment with Noury­on for its tech­no­logy to modi­fy the sur­face of nanoparticles
• Intel­li­gent Flu­ids (Ger­many) – research agree­ment with Noury­on plus part­ner sup­port by ICOS Cap­it­al for its phys­ics-based clean­ing fluids
• Cam­bridge Car­bon Cap­ture (United King­dom) – part­ner sup­port by Lux Research for its tech­no­logy to cap­ture and con­vert CO₂ into a sale­able mineral
• Aren­al Pro­cess Con­trol Solu­tions (the Neth­er­lands) – chem­ic­al research sup­port for its ultra­son­ic and thermal sensors for mon­it­or­ing pro­duc­tion processes
• The Uni­ver­sity of Shef­field and Entom­ics (United King­dom) – chem­ic­al research sup­port by Noury­on for its insect-derived surfactants.

​“Col­lab­or­at­ive innov­a­tion is essen­tial to cre­ate value and devel­op the solu­tions our cus­tom­ers need,” said Ren­i­er Vree, Nouryon’s CFO and Chair­man of the Ima­gine Chem­istry jury. ​“The con­ver­sa­tions between final­ists and experts from inside and out­side the com­pany were very open-minded and col­lab­or­a­tion-focused. Devel­op­ing value cases for joint devel­op­ment of products, research as well as sup­ply will help us to bet­ter achieve our growth ambi­tions.” Chris­toph Krumm, CEO and co-founder of Sironix Renew­ables, said: ​“The plant-based molecule we developed serves as both a sur­fact­ant and che­lat­ing agent, elim­in­at­ing the need for co-for­mu­lated chem­ic­als in deter­gents. Ima­gine Chem­istry was an invalu­able oppor­tun­ity for us to learn from Noury­on and Uni­lever experts and busi­ness lead­ers, and to come up with a plan to fur­ther devel­op our tech­no­logy.” Bill Haber­lin, CEO of Ionomr, said: ​“We aim to replace tox­ic chem­ic­als in elec­tro­chem­ic­al applic­a­tions and have the most stable altern­at­ive to enable sig­ni­fic­ant cost reduc­tions. This award really val­id­ates the work we are doing, and will accel­er­ate the adop­tion and scale-up of our tech­no­logy.” Since 2017, Ima­gine Chem­istry has gen­er­ated more than 500 innov­at­ive ideas, and Noury­on will focus on a Go-to-Mar­ket pro­gram to make sure that as many as pos­sible reach com­mer­cial­iz­a­tion, said Marco Waas, Dir­ect­or RD&I Indus­tri­al Chem­istry. ​“Examples include pro­jects focused on cir­cu­lar chem­istry and Industry 4.0 that can sub­stan­tially enhance our sus­tain­ab­il­ity pro­file and deliv­er more value to our cus­tom­ers.” Source: Noury­on, media release, 24.05.2019