The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, together with Platform Green Chemistry, New Economy and TKI Agri & Food, has submitted the BioBased Circular Growth Fund proposal. With an efficient agri-food sector and a strong chemical sector, the Netherlands seems ideally suited for the transition from fossil to biobased.
“We have a super-efficient fossil olefin-based (petro)chemical industry, with hundreds of years of optimization, where all the research has gone recently. The products provide building blocks such as PE, PP and urea for plastics and fertilizers. They are beautiful commodities, with good specifications, easily shipped around the world, with world market prices... Our predecessors, so to speak, did that well. But now that we have the climate issue, we have to get rid of fossil raw materials.” Says Arnold Stokking, managing director of Brightsite at Chemelot and leader of the Green Chemistry, New Economy platform.
The alternatives are CO2, recyclate and vegetable raw materials. The BioBased Circular Growth Fund proposal focuses on the latter. The proposal was submitted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, together with Platform Green Chemistry, New Economy (which wants to accelerate the sustainable transition in manufacturing chemistry) and TKI Agri & Food (part of the Top Sector Agri & and Food). With a super-efficient agri-food sector, a very strong chemical sector with five strong clusters, innovative companies that already work on the basis of plant-based raw materials and an extensive knowledge infrastructure, the Netherlands is ideally suited for the transition from fossil to biobased, the authors of the proposal believe.
Huge potential
Kees de Gooijer answers the question of whether there is enough plant material available to replace fossil raw materials, not only now but also in the future, when we are expected to use even more raw materials. He is chief inspiration officer at TKI Agri&Food and, like Stokking, is involved in the BioBased Circular Growth Fund proposal. “There is an enormous potential of carbohydrate-like compounds available in sugar and in residual flows from arable farming, forestry and landscape management.”
Stokking cites the figures: “The required area use is no more than 0,05 percent of the agricultural land in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France in 2032, and 0,11 to 0,31 percent in 2050.” So peanuts. To be clear, he points out that this only concerns raw materials for the chemical industry, where ten percent of the crude oil, the fossil raw material of the current chemical industry, goes. The remaining ninety percent is converted into fuels such as gasoline and kerosene, which is not the focus of this Growth Fund proposal. Although Stokking thinks so. “We must move towards a carbon sink (where more carbon is absorbed from the atmosphere than is emitted - ed.). This can be done by storing CO2, the carbon, underground or by having plants extracted from the air and stored in materials for a long time. That seems much better to me than having the carbon injected back into the air by a Boeing 747.”
New supply chains
In order to achieve the same innovation, optimization, commodities and volumes as with current fossil chemistry, it is necessary that the chemical industry and agriculture find each other, says Stokking, because the two sectors hardly work together. “We need to get the carbon not from naphtha but from the atmosphere, and plants can do that wonderfully. Then we need to make sure we keep the C out of the atmosphere for as long as possible. It is important to heavily promote this route towards chemistry, and that is what this Growth Fund proposal does. To accelerate this transition in the manufacturing industry, new supply chains must be formed. Unfortunately, the right legislation and other preconditions are still lacking, and such a Growth Fund is a fantastic incentive to create new chain formation between parties that do not yet cooperate or do not cooperate sufficiently and thus achieve solutions that do not yet exist.”
De Gooijer adds: “All kinds of chemical-catalytic systems can be devised to remove CO2 from the thermodynamic well. But there is a system that has been doing that for many millions of years, and it is called a plant. Plants have the great advantage that they are already there. You just have to take the right steps to get the building blocks for polymers out.”
Because the carbon from the 12 million tons of naphtha consumed by the six crackers in the Netherlands is largely converted into polymers, the Growth Fund proposal is aimed at biopolymers.
Fantastic raw material
“The big question is: how can you replace the naphtha?” says Stokking. “Of course we have to use as many recyclates as possible. However, we now realize that there is a huge volume gap, which means that you cannot simply replace petroleum with recyclates. Moreover, with recyclate you always have losses, which means you have to keep adding virgin material, which can no longer be fossil. The closest options to replace fossil carbon are bio-raw materials and CO2.” The Future CarbonNL Growth Fund proposal focuses on the second option, BioBased Circular on the first.
“Nature offers great molecules,” says De Gooijer, “that go in the direction of polyester and from which we can make a lot of plastics. We leave the oxygen in the molecules, which doubles the land use efficiency compared to conversion to olefin structures. We just have to put more research into this to increase efficiency. It is high time to start using this fantastic raw material and further develop it into all kinds of applications.”
Companies such as Avebe, Cosun, Corbion and Avantium have already come a long way on this route. The Netherlands also has a number of demo projects in this area, in TRL 6 or 7, but most are in a lower TRL or are still in the 'nursery'.
Scaling up essential
A number of conditions are required for a successful change. Such as adequate legislation. Stokking: “There are companies that are turning their back on chemistry and moving into energy because of the blending obligation for fuels. We must ensure that there is a level playing field between energy and raw materials for materials. We also need to look carefully at carbon credits. We punish emissions but do not reward carbon sink. We are dealing with a rather unprofitable economy for companies in this market. That is why fossil fuels must become less attractive and biobased upscaling must be encouraged. This is essential, and is therefore central to our Growth Fund proposal. Scaling up is a method to bring the price down.”
Then demand from society will also increase. De Gooijer: “The proposal is supported by approximately 125 parties, two-thirds of which are companies, from startups to major A-brands and retailers, such as Unilever, Ikea, Lego, CocaCola, Danone and Albert Heijn. They have been looking for alternatives to fossil fuels for a long time, and the CEOs are very concerned about their license to produce. Once those companies go under, you will have a domino effect, with demand going through the entire chain and volumes increasing significantly.”
flagships
Of the requested budget for the Growth Fund proposal, a third is intended for large plants (flagships) where the subsidy is less than 25 percent of the investment, a third for demo projects and a third for research. Stokking and De Gooijer hope that by 2023 there will be at least two flagships in the Netherlands, one of which produces lactic acid and one glycol (building block for PEF), and three new demo factories with a view to an investment decision for flagships. “They are the forerunners of a new industry, characterized by the use of bio raw materials, with a major role for agriculture, intensively where possible, extensively around nature reserves in particular and with maximum use of residual flows and recyclate.” Stokking and De Gooijer do not yet have a name for that industry, but the suggestion 'New chemistry' is welcomed.
BioBased Circular
The aim of the Biobased Circular (BBC) Growth Fund proposal is to accelerate the raw materials transition: replacing fossil raw materials in the context of the climate challenge. By setting up a new industry in the Netherlands, chemical building blocks and plastic materials based on bio-based materials will soon be produced and processed on a large scale. This will give a major boost to the availability and application of bio-based raw materials. The BBC program thus forms a catalyst for the expansion of the biobased chemistry and materials industry in the Netherlands, achieving employment, a high degree of independence and a significant contribution to sustainability.
This proposal brings together separate initiatives into an internationally leading circular ecosystem. BBC is supported by leading European companies (Corbion, Avantium, Cosun, Renewi), promising scale-ups (including Paques Biomaterials, Relement and Plantics) and leading research institutions (including WUR, RUG and TNO). Broadening research, scaling up, valorization and chain transition are jointly deployed and opened up to third parties. This will result in many new initiatives with an economic perspective. The proposed budget is 1,2 billion euros, of which 850 million euros will be raised by the business community. Duration: 2024-2032.
The proposal results in a decrease in CO2 emissions from 3,5 to 5,8 million tons, while the economy grows by 1,5 to 3,5 billion euros. It will also create 2500 to 8300 additional jobs.
A decision by the Growth Fund Committee is expected before the summer recess. Read all about Biobased Circular here .
This article is from the VNCI news magazine , author Igor Znidarsic
