10 Top Takeaways for Renewable Chemicals and Biomaterials in 2025
May 12, 2025
| Jim Lane
The spring conference season is starting to draw to a close, what are the takeaways from the major presentations of the season? Here are our top 10 Takeaways for renewable chemicals and biomaterials project development and product deployment in 2025:
1. Offtake Agreements are Crucial for Bankability: Securing firm offtake agreements from reliable buyers is paramount for demonstrating market viability and is essential for attracting financing and reaching a Final Investment Decision (FID). These agreements are also important considerations when selecting project sites and sourcing feedstocks.
2. Diverse and Abundant Feedstocks are Available: The bioeconomy can leverage a wide range of feedstocks, including agricultural and forest residues, municipal solid waste (MSW), industrial waste gases, and animal waste (like manure and wet agricultural wastes). Utilizing these often “unloved” waste streams represents a valuable resource opportunity unlocked by technology. Sustainable sourcing and supply chain security for renewable raw materials are critical.
3. Proven Technologies and Operational Reliability are Key: Moving beyond lab and pilot stages to demonstrate successful, efficient, and continuous commercial operation with high capacity factors is vital for validating technology and building confidence for investment. Leveraging existing infrastructure through “bolt-on” or integrated solutions is essential due to the high cost of building entirely new facilities. Standardization and modularity are seen as pathways to scale rapidly and reduce costs.
4. Low Carbon Intensity (CI) and Carbon Capture Integration Drive Value: Projects that can achieve very low or negative CI scores are highly competitive and desired, particularly in markets that reward GHG abatement. Integration with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) or Utilization (CCU), especially with biogenic CO2 sources, is a critical strategy for enhancing GHG savings and producing deeply carbon-negative fuels and materials.
5.De-risking and Securing Financing Remain Central Challenges: Navigating the complex process of de-risking projects through technical, contractual, and financial means (including grants, loan guarantees, and different levels of engineering design like FEL 2 and FEL 3) is necessary to attract the significant capital required. Government incentives, such as tax credits and programs supporting climate-smart feedstocks, play a crucial role in improving project economics.
6. Beyond Fuels: Chemicals and Materials are Significant Markets: While Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) currently receives significant attention due to market pull and investment activity, chemicals and materials represent large and growing market opportunities for bio-based products. Leveraging the potential of diverse feedstocks, including waste carbon, to produce bio-renewable chemicals, plastics, polymers, and specialty materials is a key area of development.
7. Integration with Existing Petrochemical Infrastructure is Pursued but Challenging: A significant opportunity lies in integrating bio-based intermediates and products into existing refinery and petrochemical assets, such as FCC units and hydrocrackers. However, this requires addressing challenges related to feedstock compatibility, intermediate properties (like oxygenate content), analytical methods, and potential impacts on existing metallurgy and processes. Adapting existing assets will take time.
8. Policy Frameworks Need to Support Sustainable Molecules: Clear, simple, and stable regulatory frameworks are needed to support the bioeconomy. There is a focus on improving carbon accounting methods, such as Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), addressing issues like iLUC, standardizing approaches, and ensuring policies are pathway-agnostic and allow co-processing to qualify for carbon credits. International discussions and initiatives aim to normalize sustainable fuels, chemicals, and materials in policy circles.
9. Continuous Technological Advancement and De-risking Efforts are Underway: Innovation in catalytic conversion, thermal processes, and feedstock processing is ongoing to improve yields, product quality, energy efficiency, and cost-competitiveness. Dedicated facilities and research initiatives are working to de-risk the scale-up of bioeconomy technologies, particularly for handling diverse feedstocks and integrating into downstream processes.
10. Economic Profitability is the Foundation for Sustainability: While environmental benefits and carbon value are crucial, projects must demonstrate economic viability and profitability to be truly sustainable and attract long-term investment. Economic profit drives the core business, with carbon value providing additional benefits. Balancing the push and pull between costs and carbon intensity is a key consideration.
Category: Chemicals & Materials, Top Stories
