Interview with Tine Schaerlaekens, CEO of Catalisti, Flanders' cluster for chemicals & plastics

To provide broader insight into the ecosystem in which Zeopore Technologies operates, we regularly feature perspectives from customers, partners, suppliers, and other stakeholders. Through interviews, they share their views and highlight how innovation and collaboration can drive impact across our region, global markets, and the environment. This time, we give the floor to Tine Schaerlaekens, CEO of Catalisti, the spearhead innovation cluster for the chemicals and plastics industry in Flanders.

Zeopore: Catalisti brings together industry, startups/scaleups, and research institutes. In your view, what makes collaboration in the Flemish/Belgian chemistry ecosystem so powerful for accelerating innovation?

Tine Schaerlaekens: Different ecosystem actors bring different strengths into our chemistry ecosystem: research institutes bring profound scientific knowledge and inventiveness, start-ups their entrepreneurial drive and agility, and large industry the capacity for scaling and access to markets. Together, these strengths can leverage the speed of innovation.

Flanders has a uniquely high concentration of knowledge and expertise within companies, universities, research centres, etc. Our production clusters and integrated cross border infrastructure are a massive advantage for our companies as well.

Talking to each other, building trust and effectively collaborating in a project framework, ensures that our research and innovation efforts lead to practical solutions for real life challenges that are scalable and profitable.

Many promising technologies (such as zeolite mesoporization) face challenges in moving from laboratory results to industrial deployment. What do you see as the key factors that determine whether an innovation will successfully scale?

One of the key factors is to take into account the scalability of your technology already from the time of conception. If compounds that are not used in industry e.g. for health or safety issues are eliminated, if energy requirements are calculated in a realistic way, and if the design of the production process is regarded as an inherent part of the technology development, chances for successful scaling are higher.

Another key factor is to start testing applications in real life environments as soon as possible. Industrial deployment does not only require a technology that works well, but also a market challenge for which the technology can bring a major solution.

Circular feedstocks and chemical recycling are gaining momentum. What role do you see these technologies playing in the chemical industry over the next decade?

The transition towards a circular economy is one of the main drivers of Catalisti’s innovation roadmap for the next decade. This will enable to increase resource efficiency and decrease the dependence on virgin fossil feedstocks, increasing our resilience. We are looking at three types of alternative carbon-based feedstocks: biomass, plastic waste and CO2. The challenge but also the opportunity of bringing plastic waste back into the production cycle is huge. Research and development in different dissolution and chemical recycling technologies is already part of our agenda for several years, and we are looking forward to further supporting these technologies to scale and find their way to industrialization.

What advice would you give to innovative technology companies (such as Zeopore) that want to bring new catalytic (or process) technologies into the chemical industry?

Connecting to the right people and building relationships is as crucial as developing the technology. Handle this with the same professionalism. Whether it is to secure financing from venture capitalists, attract funding from government agencies or identify strategic industry partners and first users.

Be protective about your innovation, but open to collaboration.