Bright science from DSM is enabling the transition towards a bio-based economy based on preserving natural resources and stimulating greater circularity - in everything from 100% pure carpet to bio-based paint resins to protecting biodiversity in our oceans.
In the last 40 years, our consumption of the world’s resources has tripled to the point where UNEP now predicts that we’ll need four planet earths by 2050. It’s why our scientists now design by the mantra of: reduce, replace, enable, extend and recover. In fact, by 2025 every product within the DSM innovation portfolio will be 100% based on the principles of the circular economy.
Some 4.5 billion square meters of carpet is wasted annually, much of it going to landfill, which is disastrous for the environment. Traditionally, carpet has been difficult and expensive to recycle. The answer: a revolutionary product design concept called Niaga® from DSM. It uses just one non-toxic material to make a 100% recyclable carpet, produced with up to 90% less energy.
Conventional decorative paints contain high amounts of fossil-based oils. But our Decovery® paint resins are made primarily from plants and seeds - with a carbon footprint up to one-third smaller than traditional solventborne paint resins. Our scientists achieved this impressive feat by taking the basic plant materials and converting them into tiny bio-based building blocks about one seventh the width of a human hair in length.
The world’s population is growing fast, but how can we produce sufficient food for everyone without straining the environment? Scientists at DSM’s Biotechnology Center in Delft (the Netherlands) couldn’t ignore the challenge, and explored the possibilities of plant-based proteins. What emerged was a new technology that turns an inedible agricultural byproduct of rapeseed oil extraction into valuable plant protein for a wide range of uses in food, CanolaPRO®.
Fish are essential to our society. But we’re running out of them – not least because huge volumes of wild-caught fish are used to feed other fish in the global aquaculture business. At DSM we teamed up with Evonik to produce oil high in omega 3 and 6 fatty acids…made from algae. Just one metric ton of our Veramaris® algal oil is the equivalent to 60 tons of wild-caught fish.
Today we’re doing more and more to stimulate a bio-based economy - whether its moving the industrial coating industry from solventborne to waterborne resin technology; eliminating waste from the 3D printing process; reducing food waste in packaging; or substituting fossil oils for castor beans in engineering plastics.
Our goal? A world that mirrors mother nature herself - where nothing gets wasted.
DSM's innovations are enabling better nutrition & health for all, in everything from fighting malnutrition to sugar reduction in food, to healthy aging, to vitamins for new pharmaceutical therapies, to skin cancer prevention.
DSM's innovations are tackling the global challenge of climate & energy through everything from advanced solar materials, by enabling future mobility solutions, to reducing methane emissions from cattle.
DSMs toolbox of scientific competences is grouped into seven areas, each with many advanced areas of expertise.
