Dutch sustainable chemicals company Relement has raised €1 million in a seed round to expand its start-up product bio MPA. The investment will also conduct pre-commercial trials with selected leading coating resin customers.
Reelement, a subsidiary of the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), will provide sustainable chemistry for everyday products such as coatings, adhesives, insulation, lubricants and more. The ingredients will be made from locally sourced agricultural non-food residues, not petroleum.
Bio MPA is a unique bio-based chemical composition. It provides the missing link for making bio-based alkyd coatings. External studies have shown that bio-MPA can reduce the CO 2 footprint of 3.1kg CO 2 eq/kg bio-MPA compared to the fossil equivalent. In addition, bio-MPA will improve key properties of paints and coatings, and customer validation of bio-MPA has shown improved performance in coatings such as:
Film spreads easier due to lower viscosity
Reduces yellowing effects due to UV exposure
Improve hardness and film properties
Previously, Reelement completed its first sample production campaign to produce >25 kg MPA of bioaromatic 3-methylphthalic anhydride (bio-MPA) at >99.5% purity. Relement used Biorizon's facilities in the Netherlands Green Chemical Park for this activity.
