Bio-Material World: 7 companies solving the planet's pollution problem with eco-friendly materials

Against a worsening environmental backdrop, a surge in demand for sustainable alternatives to commonly used materials is reshaping the market. Traditional materials like plastic carry huge environmental costs, and now, in light of a more fragile situation than ever, this is prompting an urgent need for eco-friendly solutions.

The urgency of the environmental situation is underscored by a recent report from a United Nations agency, warning of a 66% likelihood of surpassing the 1.5C temperature threshold between 2023 and 2027. The world has never experienced temperatures beyond this threshold, and the consequences could be dire.

Eco-friendly materials, such as graphene and bioplastics, have been developed to address two critical environmental challenges simultaneously. Not only do they combat pollution and contamination, but they also cut carbon emissions by eliminating the reliance on harmful fossil fuels during production.

The problem extends to energy-intensive chemical manufacturing, which relies heavily on fossil fuels, and releasing vast amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. Likewise, the production of plastics heavily contributes to greenhouse gas emissions through the extraction, refinement, and transportation of fossil fuels. Incineration and improper disposal of plastics further aggravate climate change by releasing additional greenhouse gases.

In contrast, eco-friendly materials, often bio-based, boast carbon-neutral properties. Derived from renewable biological resources like plants and trees, these materials absorb CO2 during growth and retain it until disposal, making them climate-neutral.

Other materials that aren’t bio-based are also supporting sustainable initiatives. Graphene, made up of a two-dimensional carbon lattice structure, showcases sustainable properties when incorporated into different materials, ranging from all the way from textiles like denim to construction materials such as concrete. By enhancing the physical properties of host materials, graphene reduces the overall material needed, resulting in more sustainable applications with a reduced carbon footprint.

Furthermore, when graphene is added to a material, such as concrete, any higher costs incurred by adding graphene are offset to a degree by longer life cycles. High durability means long lifespans and minimal maintenance, all of which boast immense cost savings.

The second strand that eco-friendly materials are addressing - environmental pollution - is also showing increasingly alarming figures. 12 million tonnes of non-biodegradable plastic is dumped into the ocean every year, along with 5.25 trillion macro and microplastics floating in the ocean, weighing up to 269,000 tonnes.

Plastic polluting rivers and landfills is also a significant source of harm to ecosystems. Additionally, exposure to toxins in plastics increases long-term health risks, often linked to cancer and respiratory problems.

While plastic pollution may be an obvious eyesore to any landscape, chemical pollution poses a more discreet yet equally harmful threat. A 2022 study by researchers at the Stockholm Environment Institute found that substances introduced by human activities have reached an alarming level and are interfering with the Earth’s natural systems, saying that chemical pollution now threatens the stability of global ecosystems upon which humanity depends.

Chemical treatments involving solvents or acids can lead to hazardous releases into the environment, contaminating water bodies, soil, and air, with potential risks to ecosystems and human health. ‘Forever chemicals’ (PFAS) have been found at high levels in numerous UK and European sites, further heightening concerns.

Beyond tackling environmental issues, eco-friendly materials and chemicals also hold huge promise in cost benefits. For example, bioplastics can compete on price with fossil-based plastics since oil prices have skyrocketed after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This, together with the more recent news of OPEC+ - representing around 40% of world oil production - agreeing to reduce oil production by 2 million barrels a day, is set to keep oil prices high, is set to keep bioplastics price competitive.

In light of environmental and cost benefits, the market opportunity for eco-friendly materials is substantial. Investors are turning their attention to companies offering sustainable alternatives, keen on addressing the climate, environmental, and health challenges posed by harmful materials. Here, we explore six such companies making strides in the eco-friendly materials and chemicals sector.

Directa Plus 

Directa Plus (DCTA)Follow | DCTA is a company that specialises in the development and production of advanced graphene-based materials and technologies.

Its disruptive material, G+® Graphene Plus, is added to standard materials - such as denim, paints, and even in batteries as a conductive additive - and brings about radically new properties as a result.

Not only does this additive mean that less standard material has to be used, but it is also obtained by purely physical treatments of natural graphite, which avoids chemical treatments with organic solvents or acids. The company uses water, temperature, and pressure to reduce the graphite thickness to the nanometric level in a safe and sustainable way.

In recent news, Directa Plus collaborated with Italian textile producer Candiani Denim to launch GRAPHITO, an eco-denim textile.

Denim is one of the most water-intensive materials to produce, and the focus of much criticism of the fashion industry. Directa's new denim material reduces water usage, energy consumption, and carbon emissions by up to 75% throughout the garment's wash lifecycle. Additionally, its antibacterial and antiviral properties enable up to 10 wears per lifecycle, while the thermoregulating properties make it suitable for all seasons. 

This partnership presents a huge scalable opportunity for Directa Plus, given Candiani's strong relationships with global brands, alongside its production capacity being four times greater than Directa's graphene-based textiles production.

Among Directa Plus’s other product offerings is Grafysorber® - a super-expanded graphite able to absorb 100 times its own weight. This is used to remove oil from the surface of water and from the ground, in case of oil spills or to prevent oil spread.

Recently, the company launched a pilot for a new concept for produced water treatment using Grafysorber®. This project, presented at the Setcar Braila location in Romania by their subsidiary Setcar, addresses the disposal of water extracted alongside crude oil during production.

As industry regulations tighten, treating produced water is becoming increasingly important. This breakthrough not only expands Directa Plus' Environmental division but also aligns with the company's strategy to embrace technologies that promote decontamination and reduce the wastage of valuable resources like water.

More good news came from Directa in June, also announcing that it had granted two new Italian patents, the EP patent, which relates to the 'apparatus for treating materials with plasma,' and the ET patent, which relates to the 'composition comprising graphene for the treatment of textile articles,' both strengthening Directa’s already diverse portfolio.

On the financial front, Directa Plus saw its product sales and service revenue increase by 26% to €10.86m, slightly above consensus market expectations. The company remains well-funded, with cash of €5.73m at year-end.

Itaconix

Itaconix (ITX)Follow | ITX designs and manufactures polymers that are used in a range of consumer products, including laundry detergents, auto dishwash pods, odour management products, and hair styling.

The company's aim is to help the world shift away from chemicals that have poor toxicity profiles and which are made from fossil-based feedstocks, and instead use plant-based ingredients that are more sustainable, while also delivering cost advantages to its customers.

Itaconic acid is a natural ingredient produced in the human and plant world that is at the core of Itaconix's technology platform. This type of polymer boasts a range of advantages, such as its versatility - itaconic acid works as the building blocks for large numbers of compounds - as well as being safe and environmentally friendly.

To accelerate market adoption of its products, Itaconix has partnered with a number of big industry names, including Nouryon and Croda. In 2019, it inked a deal with the global chemicals leader Nouryon to supply its bio-based polymers for use in the detergents market. More recently, in 2022, the company renewed its supply agreement with Croda for sustainable odour control, a collaboration that has been going strong since 2017.

Itaconix's collaboration with Croda continued to open doors for the company in 2022, with new brands in continents across the globe, including North America, Europe, and Asia using Itaconix ingredients in odour neutralisation products.

Though Itaconix’s hygiene segment saw new brands using its ingredients, on the revenue front it was the company's cleaning segment that stole the show in its latest annual results. Cleaning experienced a surge of 173.8% from 2021, largely driven by substantial growth in volumes across North America. This surge in cleaning revenues can be put down to consumers being just as concerned with the environmental and safety aspects as they are with the performance and price of the products.

For its beauty segment, the company produces polymers for hairstyling, which presents a huge opportunity for growth, given that hair fixatives have a £180m addressable market and another £20m as foam enhancers.

Biome Technologies

Biome Technologies (BIOM)Follow | BIOM is split into two divisions, Biome Bioplastics and Stanelco RF Technologies. The former specialises in the development and production of sustainable bioplastics and biomaterials, offering environmentally friendly alternatives to traditional oil-based plastics. Stanelco RF Technologies specialises in radio frequency heating and sealing systems for a wide range of industrial applications.

Bioplastics are essentially plastic that is made partly or wholly from materials derived from biological sources, such as sugarcane, potato starch, or the cellulose from trees and straw. They are often designed so that they biodegrade or compost at the end of their life, aided by fungi, bacteria, and enzymes.

Bioplastics can generally be directly substituted for their oil-based equivalents, while also being made to be chemically identical to standard industrial plastics. Bioplastics are based on organic materials, absorbing carbon as they grow. Since the production process of bioplastics is very energy efficient, the overall carbon footprint of the products is low.

Biome Technologies first floated on AIM in 2010 alongside a name change from Stanelco in an attempt to rehabilitate the company. This came after the business garnered a substantial private investor in the mid-2000s, when interest in the firm’s biodegradable plastics tech saw the company's valuation spike to £200m, before a series of financial disappointments saw reality catch up with the shares.

Since its rehabilitation, the company has prided itself on its strategy of building market-leading positions based on patented technology. Over the last nine years, Biome has undertaken research and development work on a range of biodegradable polymers.

Biome’s novel polymers have attracted attention, securing £282k funding from Innovate UK in November 2022 to scale up compostable biopolymers for flexible packaging and coatings. Shortly before, Biome was awarded a £244k grant, again from Innovate UK, to improve the shelf-life performance of food packaging made from Biome's bioplastics.

On the financial front, group revenues grew 8% in the year to £6.2m, and an increased focus on working capital management meant that Biome’s year-end cash position came in better than anticipated at £0.8m.

Haydale Graphene Industries

Haydale Graphene Industries (HAYD)Follow | HAYD specialises in the development and application of graphene and nanomaterials for a wide range of industrial sectors, including aerospace, automotive, energy, and electronics.

Haydale’s application of graphene into everyday materials boasts a wide range of environmental benefits. In particular, incorporating graphene into cement for construction holds tremendous potential for reducing CO2 emissions.

The cement industry is one of the two largest producers of carbon dioxide, creating up to 5% of worldwide man-made emissions of this gas, of which 50% is from the chemical process and 40% from burning fuel.

In 2022, Haydale partnered with smart materials producer Atomi to develop cleaner concrete, reducing CO2 emissions by over 30%. By blending graphene with cement, Haydale can make high-performance concrete with superior mechanical characteristics compared to non-graphene alternatives.

By incorporating functionalised graphene into concrete, the amount of cement required can be significantly reduced. This leads to lower CO2 emissions during production and also decreases the number of vehicles needed to transport the material.

More recently, Haydale received SMART flexible innovation support from the Welsh government to accelerate the development of the company’s graphene underfloor heating product.

Graphene's exceptional conductivity and thermal properties position it as a promising solution for low-power heating applications, such as underfloor heating. The funding received plays a big role in bringing these products to market, addressing the needs of 11 million homes facing fuel poverty and beyond. High energy prices coupled with tightened household budgets are increasingly driving product demand.

Financially, revenue jumped  50% in H1 2023 to £1.78 million, following a rebound in its US sales, with cash standing at £2.97 million at period end.

Symphony Environmental Technologies

Symphony Environmental Technologies (SYM)Follow | SYM) is a company that specialises in developing and manufacturing environmentally friendly additives and technologies for plastic products.

Symphony has a range of different additives that have a multitude of applications. Its d2p antimicrobial plastic additive is particularly well-positioned in the current market in the aftermath of Covid-19, where people generally have a heightened awareness of germs, with a survey concluding in 2021 that 89% of people are more conscious of germs than they were before the pandemic. 

Though this number may have slightly decreased in recent years, it still stands that there is an increased demand for antimicrobial materials post-pandemic, with Symphony positioned to benefit. This is shown in the company’s preliminary results for 2022, where strong momentum in d2p sales has continued, with revenues of £0.79 million representing 76% year-on-year growth.

Its anti-insect additive was also a key driver in revenue growth in 2022. The additive protects thin-wall irrigation pipes against insect damage, a notable culprit in water wastage; 3 billion litres of water are lost globally every day due to leaky pipes. This, compounded with climate change exacerbating water scarcity and contaminating water supplies, makes Symphony’s anti-insect additive more needed than ever.

Symphony’s additives for biodegradable plastic are also helping to address a globally worsening issue, as an estimated 8 million pieces of plastic pollution find their way into our ocean daily. D2w is an additive that transforms regular plastic into a different material when exposed to oxygen at the end of its life. After this process, the material is no longer plastic and becomes biodegradable, breaking down naturally in the environment with the help of bacteria and fungi.

In Q1 2023, the company’s overall revenues increased by over a quarter, up 27% compared with Q1 22, and sequentially higher than Q2. Looking ahead, short-term opportunities are expected to come to fruition in the very near term, bumping up revenues and solidifying Symphony’s market position further.

HeiQ

HEIQ (HEIQ,Follow | HEIQ) is a Swiss-based company that manufactures differentiating, eco-friendly materials in partnership with global brands, with products covering a broad range of markets including textile chemicals, man-made fibres, paints and coatings, antimicrobial plastics, probiotics, and household cleaner markets.

Spun out from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, a public research university, HeiQ has an academic research network of 30 university partners, and boasts a strong IP portfolio that positions it well as a leader for niche and high-margin products.

HeiQ prides itself on its strong ESG credentials, creating products that help to reduce CO2 emissions, water usage, and plastic pollution.

For example, HeiQ AeoniQ, HeiQ's fully owned subsidiary, produces eco-friendly cellulosic yarn that offers an alternative to polyester - a synthetic material that poses significant challenges in terms of biodegradability, most saliently, taking a staggering 1000 years to degrade naturally. AeoniQ™ has all the qualities and properties of polyester minus the environmental impact, and is designed for circularity and closed-loop recycling that could ultimately substitute oil-based fibres.

Recently, HeiQ announced a partnership with MAS, a global apparel and textile manufacturing conglomerate based in Sri Lanka. MAS, with an impressive turnover of $2 billion, has acquired a stake in HeiQ AeoniQ to produce the company's cellulosic yarn.

With this US$2.5 million investment, MAS becomes the first manufacturer to partner with HeiQ AeoniQ™, and the company's significantly increased production capacity should present a huge scalable opportunity for HeiQ.

HeiQ has achieved many other major operational milestones involving its other products over the last year, including receiving an endorsement from the Robert Koch Institute for their HeiQ Synbio probiotic cleaners as a preferred alternative to disinfectants in hospitals, alongside selling the first samples of HeiQ GrapheneX membrane to leading players in the production of batteries and handheld mobile devices.

Financially, HeiQ made solid progress in the first half of FY22, reporting a 17% increase in revenues.

Plant Health Care

Plant Health Care (PHC)Follow | PHC makes peptides derived from natural proteins derived from plants to help farmers protect their crops - as it describes them "vaccines for plants". At present, pesticides, made up of harmful chemicals, can have a negative impact on the environment. The main environmental concerns related to pesticides are soil, water, or air pollution.

In addition, the effects of exposure to pesticides on humans are a continuing concern. Exposure of the general population to pesticides occurs primarily through eating food and drinking water contaminated with pesticide residues, which has been linked to cancer, effects on reproduction, as well as adverse effects on the immune and nervous system.

Plant Health Care’s commercial business is driven by sales of Harpinαβ, a protein that acts as a powerful biostimulant, promoting the yield and quality of crops. In 2022, Harpinαβ sales increased by 36% to $8.2m.

In Brazil Harpinαβ is sold as H2Copla into sugar cane, through Coplacana, the largest distributor of inputs for this crop. Sales in Brazil sugarcane continued to grow under challenging conditions throughout 2022. Overall, Plant Health Care Brazil business more than doubled in 2022, with revenue up 104%.

In Spain, the UK, and parts of Europe, Harpinαβ is sold as ProAct AA and under other brands, where sales into fruit, vegetable crops, and turf reached $1.3 million in 2022. In Mexico, Harpinαβ represented 16% of sales in 2022.

The company saw revenue increase 40% to $11.8m in 2022, with gross margin improving 200 basis points to 61%. At present, Plant Health Care remains on track with its target to achieve annual revenue of $30 million by 2025, which it aims to do through the launch of new peptides and growth through current and future distributor relationships. It's on target to deliver cash breakeven within its existing cash reserves.