Dutch manufacturing chemistry needs new working practices to go green

The chemical industry must make its processes for manufacturing plastics and other chemical products circular, and fossil raw materials must be replaced by plastic recycling and bio-based and other carbon-free feedstocks.

‘The chemical industry is only about five years into this,’ Oukes observes. ‘At the same time, greening is very urgent because manufacturing chemistry will have to meet high environmental and climate requirements in the coming decades to maintain its licence to operate.’

Different mindset

In this way, Oukes neatly highlights the need for the report Groene maakchemie in opkomst (The emergence of green manufacturing chemistry). ‘As a company, you can still manage the old linear processes well individually. For circular processes, however, you need to engage with the other stakeholders: other companies, suppliers, clients, lenders, knowledge institutions, and public authorities. To do so, you need a different mindset. That’s new and doesn’t happen automatically.’

For the report, TNO Vector put the following question to 7 experts in the field of circular and bio-based manufacturing chemistry from the private sector, knowledge institutions, and public authorities: ‘What working practices are emerging to create successful sustainable value circles?’ The working practices were then broken down by party and different themes, such as globalisation, legislation and regulations, partnerships, and funding. The report also provides some good practical examples.

Eight working practices

In conclusion, the researchers arrived at 8 working practices that are important for all parties:

1. Balance: create a balance between demand, production, and supply.
2. Collaboration: orchestrate collaboration between parties.
3. Globalisation: map out the global playing field of manufacturing chemistry.
4. Upscaling: scale up through large-scale collaborative projects.
5. Conflict resolution: resolve mutual conflicts of interest.
6. Goal orientation: focus on a common goal.
7. Clustering: set up partnerships between chemical industry clusters.
8. Business model: develop a joint business model.

Oukes: ‘There are still things a company can continue to do autonomously, but collaboration is central to these overarching working practices. This isn’t easy, due to the considerable tension that exists between the individual interests of stakeholders and the common interest: greening and closing value circles. You have to start sharing knowledge – between companies, with lenders, with knowledge institutions, and with public authorities. Patents and the “not invented here” syndrome are pretty substantial barriers in this regard.’

Collaborative business model

In particular, Oukes sees a driving role for new, relatively small companies who want to develop green innovations and bring them to market.

‘New companies can’t grow without partners. For example, they usually benefit greatly from collaborative business models, that is to say joint plans. We also need the established companies. These have invested vast sums of money in their position and are keen to maintain it, but at the same time they have the resources and qualities to develop green initiatives further. The same is true in other countries, of course, but fortunately we’re good at reaching decisions by consensus in the Netherlands.’

At the same time, such new ‘communities’ harbour risks, says Oukes: ‘After all, collaboration also raises the question of who the problem owner is and who’s driving the process. That question shouldn’t go unanswered. I do see a role here for coordinating organisations such as Green Chemistry, New Economy (GCNE), for whom we produced this report.’

Creating demand

When it comes to closing value circles, Oukes sees a major challenge especially in creating demand for green plastics and other products from the chemical process industry. ‘The difficulty remains that the price of a circular, bio-based product is often slightly higher, while the quality is sufficient but sometimes not as good as before. That means we’ll have to develop those markets further. In that sense, I see an important role for public authorities. They often underestimate their importance as procurers.’

Starting point

What do industry, public authorities, and lenders gain from the 8 working practices? ‘It won’t be a checklist for the average business development manager of a chemical company,’ acknowledges TNO researcher Oukes.

Success is therefore not yet assured. ‘Some of these working practices may appear self-evident to us, but not necessarily to everybody else. Nor is the overview exhaustive; it’s an important first step. Changes in the chemical industry are slow because you have to take into account the depreciation period of production lines, which may be up to 20 years. The tips are already quite useful on a micro scale.

For manufacturing chemistry, this is the starting point, the inspiration. For us, this launches the phase of follow-up research, workshops, and discussions with stakeholders. This way, we’ll take manufacturing chemistry to a higher green level