have a similar performance,” said a
chief executive of an SME supplier of
coatings biomaterials.
“With some coatings biochemicals the
price premium can be as high as 30 per-
cent, giving them only a 5-percent share
of the market,” he added. “If that pre-
mium could be brought down to around
5 percent then the market share could be
pushed up to 30 percent. With a much
higher volume of biochemicals we could
achieve that change in at least parts of the
coatings sector.”
However some coatings companies
are finding that the price gaps between
petrochemicals-based chemicals and bio-
materials is gradually having less of an
impact on purchasing decisions.
“The oil-price and the price difference
between biomaterials and petrochemical-derived products is in a sense related, although not interlinked or depending on
each other,” said Sjaak Griffioen, director,
innovation, strategy and sustainability at
DSM Resins & Functional Materials, a
major user of biomaterials in the production of coatings resins. “Economics are
important but not a key driver for decision makers,” he continues.
A preference for plant-based polymers is much more driven by environmental awareness and what he calls
‘responsible consumption’, which takes
into account both environmental effects
and social concerns.
“(It) is quickly spreading across different markets and is expected to have a
growing impact on the paint and coatings
market,” he claimed.
Analysts reckon that green corporate
strategies are among a number of underlying forces which over the next several years
will gradually increase the share of biomaterials in coatings and other sectors, particularly those in which the key customers are
large international brand owners.
“Some leading brand owners are now
using biomaterials as part of a long-term
sustainability strategy,” explained Petri
Vasara, head of biofutures at Finnish-based Poyry Management Consulting,
which at the beginning of this year published a report on bio-based chemicals.
“These brand owners are a major factor
behind the steady growth in demand for
biomaterials, particularly since they tend
to be very good at influencing and man-
aging value chains.”
Since the market for biomaterials is so
small at the moment – in Europe and else-
where –their development tends to be driv-
en by partnerships between players along
the supply chain – from the processors of
the basic chemical building blocks through
to the coatings producers themselves.
Demand for bioplastics, which has
the largest end-use by volume among
biochemicals, amounted to only 900,000
tons globally in 2013, according to Poyry.
European Bioplastics, the European
producers’ trade association, estimates
the total was two years ago 1.6 million
tonnes but that includes bio-based PET,
the biggest product category, with a bio-based content of only 30 percent.
Only a tiny proportion of these bioplastics are used to make coatings resins,
the main outlet for biomaterials in the
coatings market.
“Partnership is the name of the
game in what is not yet a large mar-
ket,“ said Vasara. “Even the big
companies are teaming up with others
because of the difficulties of going it
alone in such a market.”
DSM has been among the frontrun-
ners in creating development and sup-
ply partnerships in biomaterials. It has
combined with Roquette Freres, a French
producer of starch and other plant-based
raw materials, to form a joint venture for
the production of sugar-derived succinic
acid for making polymers and resins.
Among coatings producers in
Europe AkzoNobel has been involved
in the creation of a number of partner-
ships and alliances in the development
of biochemicals, usually with the aim of
sharing costs or assuring a sales outlet
for a new biomaterial.
One of the first of these was a deal
reached two years ago with Solvay of
Belgium for the supply of a bio-based
epichlorohydrin to make epoxy resins for use in AkzoNobel coatings and
other products. AkzoNobel has recently extended an agreement with the
US biotech company Solazyme for the
annual supply of 10,000 tons of algae-derived oils being jointly developed by
the two companies.
It has also teamed up with the
Colorado-based biorefining technology
company ZeaChem Inc in exploring the
potential in Europe for a large-scale plant
for making bio-based acetic acid as a
building block for a range of derivatives.
“In order to lead the deployment of
biomaterials materials in our markets,
we have been setting up partnerships
across our supply chain,” explained an
AkzoNobel spokesman. “This supports
the emergence of a new bio-based industry, and at the same time enables
AkzoNobel to tap into alternative feedstock sources.”
The main objectives behind
AkzoNobel’s use of biomaterials in its
products is the lowering of carbon footprints and the achievement of greater resource efficiencies.
“A considerable share of AkzoNobel’s
environmental footprint is embodied in
the raw materials we buy, and most bio-based materials exhibit lower footprints,”
the spokesman says.
Market research reports have been
forecasting that European bioplastics
demand could grow by as much as a
35-percent compound annual growth
rate (CAGR) to 2030. But BIO-TIC, an
European Union -funded project for
promoting industrial biotechnology, has
argued that a CAGR of 10-15 percent
may be more realistic. But, because of the
sector’s lack of cost competiveness , that
growth rate may not be achievable without government iniatives such as quotas
for biobased plastics and bans on certain
petrochemical products. CW
“With some coatings
biochemicals the
price premium can
be as high as 30%,
giving them only a
5% share.”
