Investing in Green Chemistry: Why BioTech is a Big Opportunity
Crucial to the global economy, the chemical industry underpins sectors from pharmaceuticals, agriculture to consumer goods and has one of the most complex, highly interconnected value chains. It also has a significant environmental impact, consuming 10% of all fossil fuels to power chemical reactions, and for raw materials and feedstock. Combined, the industry generates 3 billion tonnes of CO2e annually from direct and non-direct emissions, just behind the steel and cement industries.
As regulations tighten and consumer demand shifts toward sustainability, the industry must adapt. Green chemistry offers a key part of this adaptation, presenting a major opportunity for investors and manufacturers to drive innovation in sustainable chemical processes.
What is Green Chemistry?
The basic principle of green chemistry is to minimise the use and formation of toxic substances, which are typically fossil fuel derivatives, and design products in a way that minimises harm. This approach extends beyond chemical toxicity to include energy conservation, waste reduction, and life cycle considerations. It also includes using sustainable or renewable feedstocks and designing products with their end-of-life impact in mind.
Current Investment in Green Technology
Investment in green technology is accelerating, with global funding reaching $755 billion in 2021. In the UK alone, £60 billion was invested in 2023, adding to a total of £300 billion in low-carbon sectors since 2010. Despite this growth, investment needs to triple to meet 2050 net-zero targets. For context, the global chemical-pharmaceutical market generated $8 trillion in sales in 2023 with green chemicals accounting for just $112 billion.
Following a sluggish 2023 driven by a global economic downturn, high inventory levels, and supply chain disruptions, the chemical market remains resilient and is experiencing a modest rebound. Shifting focus toward energy transition, regional competitiveness driven by new policies, and the adoption of digital technologies and AI to enhance operational efficiency and address its top three challenges.
Green chemistry supports these headline challenges and with forecasts predicting a 10% compound annual growth rate over the next decade, investing in green chemicals is not just good for the future planet, but also a smart investment choice.
Green chemicals global market size forecast 2022-2032 -Published by Statista Research Department, Feb 12, 2024.
The green chemicals market is split into subsectors, including bio alcohols (which is the largest market segment), bio ketones, bio solvents, bio polymers, bio-organic acids, and other products.
The Role of enzymes and Industrial Biotechnology in Supporting the Shift to Green
Nature’s catalysts, evolved to perform specific tasks with remarkable efficiency, offer significant advantages in green chemistry. Unlike traditional metal catalysts, they work at lower temperatures and pressures, are highly specific, and are biodegradable, making them a compelling alternative to conventional methods:
Enhanced Efficiency: These catalysts are highly specific, increasing yields and minimising by-products. This efficiency benefits both batch and continuous processes, resulting in cleaner and more cost-effective production.
Milder Conditions: They function under lower temperatures and pressures than traditional catalysts, reducing energy consumption and operational costs while mitigating thermal degradation risks. This is crucial, especially as current renewable energy solutions may not always meet the high demands of processes like cracking.
Reduced Toxicity: By replacing toxic, rare, and expensive precious metal catalysts, they mitigate supply chain volatility and reduce dependence on geopolitically sensitive regions.
Renewable Resources: Sourced from plants, fungi, and microorganisms, they help shift the industry away from fossil fuel materials towards a more sustainable model.
Less Hazardous Waste: Their specificity minimizes side reactions and waste, often eliminating the need for harsh chemicals and simplifying downstream processing and disposal. This also removes the necessity for recycling toxic catalyst waste.
Versatility: They can be tailored for various applications, from pharmaceuticals to biofuels, increasing their utility across multiple sectors.
Improved Scalability: They provide consistent performance, making the transition from laboratory to industrial-scale production smoother.
This combination of benefits positions bio-enzymes as a powerful tool in the pursuit of greener chemical processes,
How HydRegen Technology Supports Sustainability
While enzymes offer impressive benefits, current bio-based manufacturing technologies produce high waste and struggle with low productivity. HydRegen's innovative bio-based approach tackles these issues by making the transition to green chemistry easier and more economically viable.
Put simply, we make biology function like chemistry.
By seamlessly fitting into existing infrastructure, reducing reliance on imported precious metals, and cutting energy use through milder reactions, our "slot in" technology achieves a threefold reduction in CO2e emissions and provides cost savings of up to 40%. These benefits not only support a more sustainable chemical industry but address challenges like disruption and expensive infrastructure changes, while minimising the costly cleaning and waste problems often linked to metal catalysts.
Recently, the team has achieved an impressive 18-fold improvement, creating more opportunities to compete on price for lower-value chemicals. With further enhancements in the enzyme manufacturing process, eliminating downstream processing steps and boosting productivity, HydRegen is well on track to become price competitive across the entire chemicals sector by 2026.
Summary
As the chemical industry continues to adapt and evolve towards a net zero future, investing in green chemistry and bio-based solutions will be essential for driving progress toward a more sustainable and economically viable future.
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