Interest in Biobased Raw Materials Alive and Well Despite Lower Petchem Prices

By Cynthia Challener

In addition to assuring competitive pricing and advantageous performance, renewable materials suppliers must also address concerns about the quality, availability, and actual sustainability of biobased raw materials, according to Nikolaus Raupp, global sustainabil­ity manager Dispersions & Pigments at BASF. “The key limitations are availability and volume,” agrees Tim Staub, global vice president of Business Development for Green Biologics. On the other hand, ingredients for paints and coatings derived from biobased feedstocks are decoupled from the volatility and supply chain pinch-points of traditional coating and adhesive components while simultane­ously providing enhanced  performance, according to Rich Weber, general man­ager of Performance Chemicals with NatureWorks. “Our customers are fac­ing pressure on R&D, Operations, and Marketing to continue to innovate while finding cost-effective solutions, which has created a significant opportunity for functional, low-cost building blocks and intermediates,” he says.

Many suppliers of biobased raw materials and ingredients are, in fact, seeing continued interest in their products despite lower oil and gas prices. “Market interest in renewable products remains high regardless of the volatility of upstream feed stocks. The key drivers for biobased chemicals are: differentiated value, performance, or both; generally, performance benefits are accompanied by differentiation,” notes Staub. There are still biobased materials that can compete econom­ically, according to Klaas Kruithof,
director of RD&I Performance Coatings at AkzoNobel.

“We have seen some opportunities become more difficult due to competition with fossil materi­als-difficulties in getting investors for moving to scale and other issues, but that is to be expected in a developing field. We believe the markets for fossil and biobased raw materials are strongly linked. In many cases it is their use in fuels and for energy and the associated mandates and tax incentives that most shape the current market for non-food biomass and correspondingly biochemi­cals,” he continues.