The transition to green chemistry: 'Circularity is a team sport'

The chemical industry in the northern Netherlands is making promising strides when it comes to greening, but there are also challenges.

'Eemshaven was built in the 1970s as an overflow location for the petrochemical industry from Rotterdam, but was ultimately hardly used for that because of the oil crisis at the time. Therefore, the region - compared to the four other chemical clusters in the Netherlands - has little petrochemical industry such as oil refineries," says Henri Kats, investment manager at NOM. In addition to Delfzijl and Emmen, Rotterdam/Moerdijk, Terneuzen/Bergen op Zoom and Geleen (Chemelot) also have a chemical cluster.

That presents opportunities for the - often relatively young - companies that want to focus on making the chemical industry more sustainable. The list of companies is impressive. CuRe Technology is developing a technology to recycle plastics that are difficult to recycle. Circtec is building the world's largest plant for the chemical recycling of car tires. BioBTX will make Benzene, Toluene and Xylene (BTX) - also called aromatics - from waste plastics to recycle the plastic. And EEW - Energy from Waste Delfzijl will provide thermal processing of waste that cannot be reused. All receive support from NOM.

All of these companies are now about to scale up their technology and actually bring it to market. An important step that doesn't come naturally. It is difficult to compete with the existing petrochemical industry, all entrepreneurs agree. 'This industry has had a hundred years to optimize the process and so can now supply relatively cheap products. We have only had 15 years of research,' states Tijmen Vries, director of strategic development at BioBTX.

A lot of time and money is needed to make chemistry more sustainable. Who is going to pay for this is ultimately the most important question, Ter Haar argues. 'Investors often want a quick return on their investment, and look in particular at the profitability of a project.' Vries also recognizes that it is difficult to finance innovations in green chemistry. 'We see that investors often do not dare to take enough risk. Fortunately, we have now been able to partly solve it for ourselves.'

Ter Haar of Circtec sees an important role for the government in supporting companies that want to go green. 'The government must provide supportive and especially stable legislation, which is often not there now. Dutch politics is not always reliable, laws and regulations often change. That also affects the investment climate.'

More support from the government is also a wish of Wilfred de Jager, director of EEW - Energy From Waste Delfzijl. 'The government now chooses a policy where they punish companies that do not work in a circular way with tax measures. It would be better if the government chooses to stimulate circularity, for example with subsidies to support the demand for recycled (raw) materials versus virgin materials. That is an incentive for the market and in this way we can ensure that the recycling companies have a right to exist. Ultimately, they can then compete with the raw materials in terms of price.'

One of the specific government regulations that business owners encounter is the waste status of materials. From legislation, waste has a certain status, companies have to pay for getting rid of certain substances. 'In principle, this rule encourages companies to reuse as much as possible. Only if a product already has waste status and it later turns out that it can be used as a raw material after all, it is difficult to get the waste status off again,' says Kats. Companies then have to go through an extensive and long process with the municipality to get the waste status off the material. 'In a circular economy, waste doesn't really exist. More flexibility is needed from municipalities to think quickly with entrepreneurs,' Kats argues. Circtec has had to deal with such a trajectory around car tires.

The entrepreneurs face challenges. 'It feels like sometimes we have to overcome not just bumps, but whole hills and mountains. If we succeed, then we will take a very important step in greening chemistry,' says Vries of BioBTX. Kunst (CuRe Technology) also remains positive. 'In innovation, sometimes you need some positive optimism. We just have to go for it, stay focused and find good partners.' Those partners are an indispensable part for all entrepreneurs.

NOM is very active in building and supporting a network of green chemistry companies in the northern Netherlands. 'Chemport is a strong network of companies in the green chemical industry that know how to find each other easily. There is a cooperative attitude, we want to help each other without direct quid pro quo,' Kats states. Startups and scale-ups work together; for example, CuRe Technology supplies a residue from their recycling plant to BioBTX, which can use it again as a raw material. Art: "I notice that people in the North are very open and quickly trust each other.