Zeopore enables strategic carbon management in Europe’s industrial transition

The sustainability transition in Europe - marked by the European Green Deal and now sharpened through the Clean Industrial Deal (CID) - is redefining how industry must evolve in a carbon-constrained world. The CID, launched in February 2025, is the EU’s most comprehensive response to the twin challenge of decarbonization and competitiveness in energy-intensive sectors such as steel, cement, and chemicals. It is not about phasing out carbon altogether, but rather about efficient carbon management by creating value without releasing excess CO₂ into the atmosphere.

Zeopore Technologies NV, a Belgian deep-tech scale-up specialized in catalytic innovation for the chemical and refining sectors, is playing a pivotal role in this strategic rebalancing. Its next-generation zeolite mesoporization technology enhances catalytic performance while enabling cleaner, more resource-efficient processes. This way Zeopore is directly addressing CID goals around clean energy, circularity, and industrial competitiveness.

The European context: industry under pressure, yet pushing forward

Despite Europe’s ambition to lead the global cleantech race, its chemical sector is under increasing pressure. Since 2018, natural gas prices in Europe have remained more than three times higher than in the United States. The continent also faces a widening cost gap in regulatory compliance, with EU chemical regulations currently up to 12% costlier than those in the U.S. As a result, many chemical production sites across Europe have closed or scaled back, leading to an erosion in the region’s competitive edge.

And yet, Europe continues to invest. Capital expenditure in the EU chemical industry has more than doubled since 2014, demonstrating strong strategic commitment to modernize and decarbonize. The Clean Industrial Deal accelerates this transformation by integrating climate goals into industrial policy, with support mechanisms for cleantech scale-ups and infrastructure modernization. In this context, Zeopore offers both the climate impact and economic viability that the EU’s industrial renaissance demands.

Zeopore’s catalytic platform: supporting CID objectives across three fronts

1. Decarbonizing energy-intensive industries

Zeopore enables advanced catalytic upgrades by introducing mesoporosity into conventional zeolites, the most widely used solid catalysts in refining and chemical manufacturing. This enhances molecular diffusion and active site accessibility, leading to lower process temperatures and hydrogen demand, reduced energy consumption, and significantly extended catalyst lifetimes. In hydrocracking, dewaxing, and catalytic cracking, this can reduce CO₂ emissions per ton of processed feedstock, while delivering direct economic value, up to €15 million per refinery per year.

2. Circular carbon and waste valorization

Zeopore technology facilitates the catalytic conversion of low-value, heterogeneous waste streams, including used cooking oils, animal fats, and plastic pyrolysis oils, into clean fuels and chemical intermediates. By enhancing the yield and selectivity of these difficult feedstocks, Zeopore supports circular economy strategies that maximize carbon use without releasing it, aligning with the CID’s focus on circularity and industrial resilience.

3. Scaling renewable feedstocks and bio-based production

As Europe ramps up mandates for sustainable aviation fuel and advanced biofuels under RED II and III, Zeopore enables the efficient catalytic processing of bio-based inputs such as Fischer-Tropsch waxes and biomass-derived oils. These feedstocks often contain high levels of oxygenates and impurities, challenges which mesoporized zeolites are uniquely equipped to handle. This ensures better economics, higher yields, and reduced emissions in renewable fuel production.

Building competitive advantage with scalable, sustainable technology

Zeopore’s process is proprietary, cost-effective, and operationally straightforward. It requires no harmful chemicals, incurs low capital and operating costs, and is compatible with all major industrial zeolite types. This versatility provides a unique competitive advantage: one platform, multiple applications, from petrochemicals to plastics recycling to sustainable fuels.

The technology’s catalytic and economic benefits are already validated by international customers. Zeopore is currently fulfilling first customer orders from its semi-industrial unit in Belgium and is in advanced negotiations with several global partners. These commercial developments are expected to support growth to a €25 million business by 2029 with a good EBITDA margin — in a global, growing €1.5 billion market for advanced zeolite catalysts. The long-term revenue potential of Zeopore is estimated at over €200 million.

Conclusion: carbon management is the new frontier of competitiveness

As the EU shifts from decarbonization rhetoric to actionable industrial strategy, the focus is no longer on eliminating carbon, but on managing it wisely. Zeopore is a strategic enabler in this evolution, helping Europe transform carbon liabilities into value: efficiently, cleanly, and competitively.

Through its deep technological edge and proven industrial relevance, Zeopore is not just aligned with the Clean Industrial Deal, it is helping deliver on its promise.

For investors and industrial leaders seeking future-proof, scalable solutions at the core of Europe’s green industrial transformation, Zeopore Technologies offers a rare convergence of innovation, impact, and growth.

“Challenging times are not a reason to hold back—they are the moment to innovate, take risks, and lead the transition.”