Technological watch

Royal DSM, a global science-based company active in nutrition, health and sustainable living, today announced that it will start a strategic partnership with Neste, the world’s leading producer of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel and a forerunner as provider of renewable and circular solutions for the chemical industry, to enable the production of high performance polymers. This enables DSM and its customers to reduce the carbon footprint of their own products whilst supporting the industry to transition to a circular economy.

In the new strategic collaboration, DSM Engineering Materials will start replacing a significant proportion of the fossil feedstock used to date in the manufacture of its high performance polymers portfolio with feedstock produced from recycled waste plastics and/or 100% bio-based hydrocarbons. These polymers are used, for example, in the automotive, electronics and packaging industries.

Over the short term, the collaboration aims to replace several thousand tons of fossil feedstock in the production of polymers with alternative, sustainable feedstock: bio-based and waste plastic based hydrocarbons.

Neste produces its bio-based hydrocarbons entirely from renewable raw materials, such as waste and residue oils and fats. For the production of waste plastic derived feedstock, Neste focuses on plastics that cannot be mechanically recycled and have previously been directed to incineration and landfilling.

Thanks to being a drop-in replacement to commonly-used fossil feedstock in the polymers production, Neste’s products are suitable for existing production infrastructures and enables DSM to produce more sustainable products with consistently high quality using its existing processes.

All of the chemically recycled and bio-based materials within the value chain will have the globally recognized ISCC Plus certification and will not require re-qualification.