Dr Jen Vanderhoven, Chief Operating Officer of the Bio-based and Biodegradable Industries Association, highlights the potential for bio-based chemicals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and emphasises the UK’s opportunity to lead in this sector.
Bio-based chemicals and materials derived from biological resources like plants, algae, or waste promise to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, decrease reliance on finite resources, and foster circularity. Yet, despite their environmental benefits, bio-based chemicals face a disproportionately high bar when compared to their fossil-based counterparts. This double standard complicates their adoption and growth, but understanding the challenges can help us create solutions that level the playing field.
Sustainable chemicals and materials are essential for modern society
Manufactured chemicals are in everything we use in our daily lives – plastics, food, textiles, energy, batteries, defence products, mobile phones, and medicines. They are vital to our food security, the clothes we wear, heating our homes, affording national security, enabling communications, and delivering treatments for diseases.
Today, almost all chemicals are manufactured from fossil oil-and-gas,¹ and are responsible for ~10% of Global-Greenhouse-Gas-Emissions.²
As global temperatures continue to rise, the drive towards a more environmentally friendly economy is not an option; it is a necessity. We simply cannot afford to keep digging up fossil resources and releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It’s time to start using carbon that is already above ground (or in our soils). Future sources of carbon for the chemical industry include biomass, carbon dioxide capture, and recycled feedstocks.
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
Bio-based chemicals and materials designed, developed, and manufactured in the UK offer a once-in-a-generation opportunity to secure industries in the transition away from oil and gas. Building from world-leading expertise in these sustainable technologies, we can create a resilient engine for net zero, securing and growing hundreds of thousands of highly skilled and productive jobs.
Bio-based chemicals and materials are derived from renewable biological resources like plants, algae, mycelium and organic waste – known as ‘biomass’, reducing dependence on fossil oil and gas.¹
The UK chemicals industry has an ambition. By 2050, it will have doubled in size whilst sourcing 30% of its carbon feedstock from biomass.² With the right support, bio-based chemicals and materials have the potential to generate upwards of £204bn annual revenue for UK plc by 2050³ and significantly contribute to the UK’s Net Zero commitment.
Evidence has shown that starting with the adoption of just fifteen high-potential bio-based chemicals will achieve more than 5.2 million tonnes of CO2eq GHG-savings annually.⁴ This is greater than the CO2eq GHG-savings generated through the Road Traffic Fuel Obligation in 2021.⁵
Yet, despite their environmental benefits, biobased chemicals face a disproportionately high bar when compared to their fossil-based counterparts.
The challenges facing biobased chemicals
Performance expectations
Fossil-based chemicals have been optimised over decades, achieving high performance and consistency. Bio-based chemicals, as newer entrants, are often expected to meet or exceed these standards immediately.
Challenge: Variability in biomass feedstocks can lead to inconsistencies in quality or performance.
Opportunity: Advances in bioprocessing and synthetic biology are addressing these issues, enabling more consistent outputs.
Cost competitiveness
Fossil incumbents benefit from economies of scale, extensive infrastructure, and decades of subsidies. Bio-based chemicals, on the other hand, often struggle to compete on price due to smaller production scales and higher input costs.
Challenge: Fluctuating biomass prices and limited manufacturing capacity increase costs.
Opportunity: Scaling production, improving feedstock efficiency, and creating supportive policy frameworks can close the cost gap.
Infrastructure barriers
The global chemical industry is built around fossil-based supply chains, from refineries to transport systems. Bio-based chemicals must fit into or create new infrastructure to compete.
Challenge: Retrofitting existing facilities or building new ones adds upfront costs.
Opportunity: Developing drop-in biobased solutions that integrate seamlessly into existing systems can facilitate adoption.
Higher regulatory scrutiny
Bio-based chemicals often face more rigorous testing and certification requirements despite their environmentally friendly origins. Fossil-based chemicals, with long-standing approval, are rarely revisited under the same scrutiny.
Challenge: Lengthy and expensive approval processes slow down market entry for bio-based alternatives.
Opportunity: Harmonising regulations and streamlining certification processes can accelerate adoption.
Limited public awareness
Consumers often lack knowledge about bio-based chemicals and their benefits, making it harder for companies to justify price premiums or drive demand. Fossil-based products, meanwhile, benefit from familiarity and established markets.
Challenge: Overcoming the perception that bio-based products are niche or inferior.
Opportunity: Education campaigns and transparent labelling can increase consumer trust and demand for bio-based products.
Strategy not translated into policy and regulations
The UK has a sustained record of global academic excellence in bio-based chemicals research, underpinning the potential for UK businesses to be industrial leaders in this space. Other areas of the world are already implementing policies to drive bio-based sectors forward, but the UK risks losing its competitive advantage if action is not taken soon.
The policy and regulatory landscape encompassing bio-based materials and chemicals is complex and spans several Government departments. This has led to conflicting policies and regulations that hinder the commercialisation of these vital products.
Previous government strategies have promised support for bio-based materials, but translation into policy and regulations has not yet been realised:
- In 2018, the UK’s Bioeconomy Strategy (now withdrawn) recognised the vital importance of bio-based materials, with a vision to “enable rapid development and deployment of new technologies, including regulation and industry guidance on waste; the impact of bio-based procurement and standards for bio-based plastics and other bio-materials.”
- In 2021, the UK’s Innovation Strategy stated that “engineering biology will help lessen our dependence on fossil fuels and simplify global supply chains, shifting us from an oil-based economy towards a bio-based economy. Where fossil-derived fuels or plastics are required, biomanufacturing will deliver biobased and waste-derived alternatives in 80% of the cases by 2035.”
Why the higher bar exists
The status quo advantage
Fossil-based chemicals have dominated the market for over a century, benefiting from entrenched systems, subsidies, and public familiarity. Bio-based alternatives are seen as disruptors and face scepticism as a result.
Short-term cost focus
Traditional cost-benefit analyses often ignore externalities like carbon emissions and environmental degradation. Bio-based chemicals, despite their long-term sustainability benefits, are often judged by short-term financial metrics.
Unrealistic expectations
There’s a tendency to expect biobased chemicals to be perfect – carbon-neutral, high-performing, cost-competitive, and scalable – all at once. Fossil-based chemicals were not held to such standards when they were introduced.
How to level the playing field: The case for supporting bio-based chemicals
Despite these challenges, bio-based chemicals are essential for a sustainable future, and they deserve support. The UK bio-based chemicals and materials sector is ready.
This once-in-a-generation opportunity is here, and the bio-based sector is ready. The size of the prize is large, but action is needed to ensure the UK reaps the benefits of the transition away from oil and gas to a more sustainable circular economy – one in which bio-based chemicals and materials have the potential to generate upwards of £204bn annual revenue for UK plc by 2050 and significantly contribute to the UK’s Net Zero commitment.
The ambition of the bio-based sector is clear, but the lack of a level playing field for the sector is stifling progress. We call upon the Government to support the sector, through three key actions:
Roadmap to accelerate development and commercialisation
As the UK transitions away from fossil-based oil and gas, we must ensure we maintain and grow our ability to manufacture sustainable bio-based chemicals and materials in the UK.
This requires a dedicated road map that builds on our great chemical industry heritage and assets and provides investment in new biorefineries. Ring-fencing 25% of national non-food biomass feedstock for bio-based chemicals and materials would be a great starting point.
Create a level playing field
Bio-based chemical materials come with an inherent green tax, competing with subsidised fossil-based oil and gas.
To create a level playing field, bio-based content must be considered ‘recycled content’ in plastics in relation to the plastics packaging tax, and a mass balance approach for biomass in bio-based materials should be agreed upon and promoted.
Lead by example
The UK government must lead by example and create a market for sustainable bio-based chemicals and materials in the UK, by implementing government procurement processes that drive and accelerate the adoption of the sector.
By 2030, mandate that 30% of all plastics procured by the NHS must be made from sustainable bio-based chemicals and materials.
Enabling a truly circular economy
Soil is vital to sustaining life on Earth, producing our food and sustaining rich ecosystems. Yet, in recent years, soil in the UK has become heavily degraded through over-use, erosion, compaction, and pollution. Organic recycling offers the opportunity to create nutrient- and organic-matter-rich compost to replenish our soils and to reduce GHG emissions by halting our current landfilling and incineration of organic wastes.
To regenerate our vital agricultural soils, certified compostable packaging must be incentivised and allowed to be collected with household food waste or dry recycling, to then be treated by suitably equipped and/or designed anaerobic digestion, industrial composting or integrated AD and composting processes.
Sustainable chemicals and materials are essential for modern society
Bio-based chemicals face a higher bar than their fossil-based predecessors, but the stakes couldn’t be higher. Transitioning to sustainable chemicals is critical to addressing the climate crisis, protecting ecosystems, and building a resilient future.
By recognising the unique challenges bio-based chemicals face and actively supporting their development, we can overcome the barriers and create a more sustainable chemical industry.
The high bar may be a hurdle, but it’s one worth clearing—for the planet and future generations.
References
- The Royal Society: Catalysing change: Defossilising the chemical industry Policy Briefing – de-fossilising-chemical-industry-report.pdf (royalsociety.org)
- Innovate UK: Sustainable carbon ambition for the UK chemicals industry – Sustainable carbon ambition for the UK chemicals industry – Innovate UK Business Connect (ktn-uk.org)
- Data from reference no.2, extrapolated to 2050 at a CAGR of 9% (Chemicals Global Market Report 2024, research and markets)
- Department for Energy Security and Net Zero: Project contract PS22436 – Economic and climate benefits to the UK of increased use of bio-based chemicals (RAF097/2223) 2024, unpublished
- HMG: The Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation – an essential guide Road Traffic Fuel Obligation https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65a8113db2f3c60013e5d4ce/rtfo-essential-guide-2024.pdf
Please note, this article will also appear in the 20th edition of our quarterly publication.
