IFF and Kemira have formed Alpha Bio, a joint venture aimed at commercial-scale production of renewable biobased materials.
With an investment of approximately €130m ($148m), the Alpha Bio facility will start production in late 2027, converting up to 44,000 metric tonnes of plant sugars to bioproducts, including high-performance biopolymers for use in various applications, such as home and personal care and industrial solutions.
Alpha Bio’s production will use IFF’s Designed Enzymatic Biomaterial (DEB) platform technology, integrated at the IFF biorefinery in Kotka, Finland.
“Our partnership with Kemira has reached a significant milestone, enabling us to scale the production of groundbreaking biobased materials to meet the large and growing demand for high-performing and sustainable alternatives to fossil-derived polymers," said IFF CEO Erik Fyrwald (pictured, right, with Kemira CEO Antti Salminen).
"IFF’s DEB technology not only guarantees superior purity and consistency compared to traditional biopolymers but also enhances performance across various applications. This innovative approach allows us to combine biodegradability and material sustainability while maintaining cost efficiency and the high performance our customers expect."
IFF’s DEB platform leverages biotechnology by using plant-based sugars and enzymes under mild process conditions to create biobased materials, which can be tailored for specific product applications.
This allows manufacturers to replace traditional fossil-based synthetic polymers with more sustainable alternatives.
This highly efficient enzymatic polymerization process converts plant sugars to biopolymers, offering superior purity and consistency compared to conventional synthetic polymers.
Operating as an independent entity in Kotka, Finland, the joint venture will manufacture a specific line of products enabled by DEB technology for exclusive use by IFF and Kemira.
The creation of Alpha Bio is expected to generate approximately 30 direct new jobs in the Kotka area with additional job creation during the project’s construction phase.
