BioFire

Biobased Flame retardant from Organic Waste

Value Proposition

Sustainable

Made from microbial biopolymers derived from organic waste

High Performance

Meets strict fire safety standards

Cost-Effective

Abundant raw material and optimized production allows cost competitiveness

Background

Flame retardants (FR) are critical intermediates with widespread demand across industries. They are additives that slow or prevent the outbreak of fire. Traditionally, FRs are produced from toxic chemicals such as halogenated compounds, many of which are already banned or facing imminent regulatory restrictions due to their environmental and health risks. Safer chemical alternatives, like phosphate-based compounds, often require high loadings to be effective, compromising mechanical performance, increasing curing times, and adding logistical burdens, all of which negatively impact production efficiency.

Biobased FRs could offer a safer alternative. In addition to reducing toxicity, biobased products are becoming increasingly geopolitically important by eliminating dependence on non-renewable and imported resources. This urgency has driven engineering communities worldwide to search for scalable biobased solutions. However, the biobased FR alternatives remain scarce, difficult to scale, or technically underperforming.

Problem

Toxic FR and increasing regulations

Many traditional FRs are being restricted under regulations like REACH and RoHS due to their toxicity. They often require high loadings (up to 70% wt. of the material) to be effective, which compromises material performance and increases production costs by up to 2-3 times. The addition of such FRs also reduces the production capacity of the plants due to increased curing time. Despite rising demand for safer options, the green alternatives are still expensive, hard to scale, or underperforming.

Waste management costs and emissions

According to the Netherlands Water Partnership, Dutch wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) generate over 1 million tons of sludge annually, costing €150–250 million for the water boards.

Solution

BioFire offers a circular solution to both challenges. It is a multifunctional FR extracted from organic waste such as wastewater sludge, containing valuable organic and inorganic components. This composition enables multiple FR mechanisms, including char formation and quenching. Its complex molecular structure, containing proteins and polysaccharides, also gives it adhesive properties, allowing it to function as a natural binder.

Thanks to the abundant availability of its raw material and an optimised extraction process, BioFire can be mass-produced cost-competitively. Moreover, recovering BioFire from sludge reduces waste volume, lowers disposal costs for water authorities, and decreases the need for incineration, cutting energy use and emissions in the process. Together, these advantages make BioFire a safe, scalable, and cost-efficient solution to address the > €9B global market of FRs.

BioFire addresses the "innovation gap" between "safe but underperforming/expensive green FR solutions" and "toxic but effective FRs".