Bio-based coatings: “Moving from niche to scale”

How can collaboration create the greatest impact to accelerate adoption of bio-based coatings?

Julie Haevermans: The market is clearly moving beyond a “green premium niche approach.” To achieve scale, solutions must deliver performance, sustainability, and affordability—together. This is where collaboration becomes critical, enabling:

• Education across the value chain, with step-by-step progress
• Transparency and shared metrics, such as Life Cycle Analysis (LCA)
• Co-innovation, aligning technical performance with economic expectations

By working alongside with upstream leaders like Godavari Biorefineries and partnering with innovators such as Catalyxx, Arkema accelerates the development of high-performance bio-based resins for paints, coatings, and construction materials. With growing green building standards, as well as brand leader and architect engagement, demand is increasing. The development of bio-butanol-based resins opens new pathways to combine performance with circularity and lower carbon footprint.

How do regional priorities shape the adoption of bio-based coatings?

Haevermans: Adoption dynamics are region specific and understanding them is key to scaling effectively. Some of the differences we’ve seen include:

• In Europe, the transition is strongly driven by carbon reduction, raw materials representing ~50% to 80% of a coatings formulator’s Scope 3 emissions.
• In the US and in Asia, there is more emphasis on health, safety, and bio-content

At a global level, benefits such as low VOC, non-toxicity, and renewable based origin are key decision drivers for the markets. Finally, all regional drivers will converge over time. This is why it is essential to advance on all fronts simultaneously.

What are the main barriers and how can the industry overcome them?

Haevermans: The transition is progressing step by step, with the industry successfully managing dual supply chains—bio-based and fossil-based—as it builds momentum. However, bio-based materials can still carry a cost gap of ~10–30% depending on the technology and scale. The key challenge today remains affordability at scale. This is where industry leaders play a decisive role, collaborating across ecosystems to: invest in more efficient technologies and to drive innovation, from formulation expertise to smarter material integration, continuously improving the performance-to-cost balance.

How is the role of bio-based materials evolving in today’s global context?

Richard Jenkins: Bio-based materials are not new, traditional technologies such as alkyd resins have long incorporated renewable content. What is changing today is the intentional and accelerated shift away from fossil-based feedstocks. Bio-based paints and coatings already represent a market of over $13 billion globally, growing at around 10% annually. While still a minority within the overall coatings industry, they are among the fastest-expanding segments, clearly moving from niche to scale.

The annual rate of publications on the topic of bio-based coatings has increased 16x since 2010, to approximately 1,000 per year today. This momentum has been further reinforced by recent disruptions in fossil-based feedstocks—both in terms of price volatility and supply uncertainty—which have highlighted the strategic value of alternative, more resilient raw material sources

What are the main supply chain challenges—and opportunities?

Jenkins: The key challenge is to scale efficiently while navigating uncertainty and volatility. These factors have made long-term investments more complex. At the same time, these dynamics are acting as a catalyst. They are accelerating the development of more regional, diversified, and resilient value chains—an area where bio-based materials can help reinforce both diversification and resilience. Stepping back, I would describe the industry as being in a phase of experimentation, exploring the most effective pathways to scale. By definition, not every initiative will succeed, but this process is essential to identifying the path forward.

How do you see the balance between bio-based and fossil feedstocks evolving?

Jenkins: Over the next five to ten years, we anticipate a progressive scaling of bio-based feedstocks across applications, supported by continued innovation. The pace will vary by region. Europe is largely regulation-driven, with strong policy frameworks accelerating adoption. The United States is more market-driven, with strong customer demand for performance, wellbeing, and sustainability benefits. India and emerging markets combine policy support with scale advantages, enabling rapid development of competitive bio-based value chains. The transition will take time, but the direction is clear. Success will depend on the industry’s ability to collaborate, scale solutions, and deliver competitive performance at the right cost.

We also spoke to Sangeeta Srivastava, Executive Director at Godavari Biorefineries, who is partnering with Arkema, about bio-based feedstocks.

How is India advancing responsible bio-based feedstocks?

Sangeeta Srivastava: Today’s geopolitical tensions are forcing the global chemical value chain to reevaluate its dependence on bio-based raw materials for fuels and chemicals. India, the world’s third-largest ethanol producer, is a premier example of how proactive policy drives this bio-based transformation. By progressively increasing bioethanol blending targets up to 30% in fuels, the government has created the robust demand necessary for the industry to achieve true commercial scale. At Godavari Biorefineries, we have built upon this foundation through dedicated research and scalable feedstock innovation. Utilising responsibly sourced sugarcane, we convert bioethanol into higher-value, sustainable intermediates like bio-butanol—a critical building block for the next generation of more sustainable coatings and acrylates.

Crucially, we secure this supply from the ground up. By partnering directly with smallholder farmers, we strengthen better labor rights and social conditions, deploy modern agricultural technologies and regenerative practices to improve soil health and boost crop yields. This continuous innovation and co-creation at the farm level ensures that our productivity gains protect food security, delivering scalable, non-food feedstocks that empower global material science.

What challenges remain in scaling sustainable bio-based feedstocks?

Srivastava: Scaling sustainable bio-based feedstocks creates opportunities to further optimise the entire system. While feedstock availability is seasonal, we see a catalyst for continual innovation. To address seasonality and ensure a reliable supply chain, our integrated biorefinery model is designed for maximum operational flexibility. Furthermore, our direct collaboration with smallholder farmers on regenerative agriculture focuses heavily on resource efficiency, drastically optimising water and land use to ensure our yields grow without straining local ecosystems. Still, broader market adoption requires absolute trust, and certification and traceability systems are evolving to meet this need.

Godavari is proactively championing this transparency. By offering Bonsucro/USDA-certified bio-based products and maintaining a clear, auditable line of sight from the farmer’s field to the final chemical intermediate, we are delivering the robust lifecycle assessment (LCA) data that brand owners demand. Farm-to-factory traceability builds confidence across the value chain, actively de-risking the transition toward sustainable materials.

What are the advantages of ethanol-derived bio-based intermediates for the coatings industry?

Srivastava: The development of ethanol-based value chains both enables and accelerates the production of higher-value bio-based intermediates. Over time, bio-based derivatives such as bio-butanol offer a more predictable cost base compared to petrochemical feedstocks, which are exposed to crude oil volatility. This creates a strong foundation for scalable and competitive solutions.

 

 

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