A new initiative aims to connect start-ups, R&D teams and academics with major chemical companies to drive early-stage innovation around areas such as chemical emissions reduction, circularity, and sustainable feedstocks.
The GIC Innovation Ecosystem aims to gives innovators the opportunity to engage directly with GIC’s project portfolio. Participants will also have the opportunity to collaborate with member companies and contribute to commercially scalable industry sustainability projects.
Charlie Tan, CEO of the GIC said: “Innovation is happening fast and often at the edges. We are launching the Innovation Ecosystem to bring those edge innovators into the room with industry leaders, enabling early collaboration and ensuring breakthrough technologies can scale where they’re needed most.”
As the chemical sector confronts growing pressure to reduce emissions and advance circularity, it has become clear that scaling impact will require new kinds of partnerships and innovation models, the GIC said: "Many innovators—both from within and beyond the sector—are developing emerging technologies that could play a pivotal role in the transformation of the chemicals value chain," it said.
Projects supported by the GIC include mapping and piloting circular loops in the municipal solid waste system by identifying the best recycling technologies and channelling waste into high-value circular products. Another project looks at the most effective, technically feasible and economically viable technologies to destroy short-chained PFAS commonly found in process water, while the 'sustainable biomass sourcing' project looks at the best sources of second-generation sustainable biomass and the best conversion methods to create biobased chemicals and valuable end products.
The GIC has said that since it was set up, it has successfully advanced several projects to spin-off or pilot with signed agreements among the project members. One of these projects is the Automotive Plastics Circularity pilot which brings together eight global leaders in the chemical and recycling industries. BASF, Covestro, LG Chem, LyondellBasell, Mitsubishi Chemicals Group, Sabic, Suez and Syensqo, are addressing the challenge of recycling plastics from End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs) by optimising the dismantling, shredding and sorting processes, and gaining access to specific polymer feedstocks for the chemical industry to increase recycling.
Launching the Automotive Plastics Circularity pilot at the start of 2025, Lars Kissau, President, Net Zero Accelerator, BASF said: “The goal of this pilot is to move beyond theoretical discussions and test real-world solutions for ELV plastics recycling. By focusing on advanced sorting and recycling technologies, we aim to prove that high-quality, closed-loop systems are not only possible but scalable for global impact.”
The pilot is expected to yield valuable data to guide broader industry adoption. Following its conclusion, the project will focus on scaling up efforts regionally in Europe and expanding to other key markets for ELV plastics recycling and production.
Further reading:
- Chemical companies and researchers collaborate to tackle plastic waste
- Flue2Chem points the way towards a low-carbon, circular economy
- Science, entrepreneurs and capital: Why it's time to better connect them
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