High-Performance Biopolymers for Real World Applications

Demand for sustainable, high-performing materials is accelerating, but most bio-based alternatives still force costly trade-offs in performance, scalability or economics. As a result, many promising innovations stall before reaching mainstream adoption, even as regulators tighten standards and consumers expect products that are both greener and better without paying more.

Yet across materials science, consumer goods and industrial chemistry, a structural shift is underway. Enzymatic biotechnology is enabling a new class of renewable materials. Not mere substitutes that compromise performance but engineered biomaterials designed from the molecular level to meet or exceed the standards set by fossil-derived polymers.

One such approach is IFF’s Designed Enzymatic Biomaterials™ (DEB) platform, which converts plant-based sugars into highly tailored polysaccharides using only enzymes, water and mild conditions. DEB serves as a foundational platform that enables precise control over molecular architecture, performance characteristics and end-of-life behavior while remaining scalable and economically viable.

The significance of the approach lies less in any single application than in what it represents: a platform shift in how materials themselves can be designed — renewable by default, high-performing by design and scalable by intent.

Why High-Performance Biopolymers Have Historically Struggled to Scale

The materials industry faces converging pressures: regulatory tightening, supply-chain volatility, fossil dependency and rising consumer expectations for sustainability without compromise. The global bio-based polymers market, valued at roughly $15 to $21 billion in 2024–2025, is projected to reach $45 to $50 billion by 2030. Yet history suggests that growth projections alone do not guarantee adoption.

Many technically promising bio-based innovations have struggled. Not because of weak science, but because of structural barriers: high production costs, inconsistent performance in demanding applications, limited end-of-life infrastructure, regulatory ambiguity and misalignment across value chains. Breakthrough chemistry proved insufficient without parallel advances in economics, manufacturing, policy and ecosystem coordination.

The lesson is clear: Successful materials transitions require not only better molecules, but better ecosystems, with parts to play for formulators, engineers, strategists and visionaries both public and private.

How DEB Converts Plant Sugars Into Scalable Materials

DEB was engineered with these systemic barriers in mind.

Using enzymatic polymerization, plant-based sugars, such as those derived from sugar beets, are converted into highly pure, consistent alpha-glucan polysaccharides under mild conditions, without hazardous solvents, high heat or pressure. The result is a class of materials whose molecular weight, branching and functionality can be precisely tuned to deliver specific functional properties and meet the requirements of diverse end uses.

Plant-based sugars are plentiful and renewable. With sugar consumption declining in the U.S. (down 4.4% in recent years) and Europe (down 6.7%), feedstock for innovative non-food applications is robust without straining food supplies.

Additionally, an increasing portion of global sugar crops, projected to reach 21% by 2028, is already allocated to industrial uses such as biofuel production, underscoring the versatility of plant-based sugars beyond human consumption and reinforcing IFF’s commitment to advancing sustainability while prioritizing food security.

This design philosophy yields three interdependent advantages:

1. Performance Parity

In laundry formulations, DEB-based polymers deliver fabric softness comparable to or better than conventional synthetics in fully biodegradable formulations. In personal care, materials such as AURIST™ AGC improve wet and dry combability with conditioning performance on par with leading alternatives. Across industrial uses, DEB-derived polymers meet established specifications for purity, reproducibility and functional consistency.

Conventional petrochemical polymers are mostly fossil-derived and produced via chemical processes associated with potential health and environmental exposure risks. DEB materials are produced through bio-based enzymatic polymerization that avoids harsh chemical feedstocks, minimizing the presence of concerning residual monomers or hazardous byproducts and offering a significantly safer profile for human and environmental exposure.

2. Sustainability That Goes Beyond Compliance

DEB materials are inherently or readily biodegradable, and they can be carbon-negative during manufacturing, absorbing more CO₂ than is emitted (as validated by peer-reviewed life-cycle assessments). While bio-based polymers typically reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45% to 80% versus fossil equivalents, enzymatic production amplifies these gains through low-energy processing and renewable plant-based feedstocks, with positive secondary impacts on land and water efficiency through co-product utilization.

In addition to substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil-derived polymers, DEB stands out for its excellent biodegradability and compostability attributes. DEB-based materials break down naturally through enzymatic and microbial processes, supporting full decomposition in composting environments, minimizing plastic waste accumulation and ultimately supporting circularity.

3. Economics That Support Mainstream Adoption

Enzyme-driven processes enable favorable unit economics at commercial scale, allowing manufacturers to adopt renewable materials without pricing premiums or performance trade-offs — a prerequisite for widespread market penetration.

Together, these attributes demonstrate that sustainability and performance need not compete. In advanced materials, they increasingly reinforce one another.

Biopolymers in Real World Applications: Detergents, Personal Care and More

Momentum is already building.

In September 2025, we achieved the first large-scale commercial application of DEB in major home care and laundry detergents, delivering improved fabric softness and cleaning power while replacing non-biodegradable polymers. Our portfolio includes Lyrature™ for home care polymers and structurants (customizable for cleaning, rheology modification and emulsion stabilization), AURIST™ AGC for hair conditioning (readily biodegradable and award-winning for sustainable beauty solutions) and Nuvolve® for industrial applications such as coatings and packaging.

Early partnerships are already helping accelerate adoption and expand application possibilities. They demonstrate a critical truth: Enzymatic biomaterials are no longer experimental. They are manufacturable, scalable and economically viable.

Yet challenges remain. Achieving full commercial unit economies at massive scale, navigating regulatory ambiguity and incentive gaps, developing widespread end-of-life infrastructure and ensuring broad ecosystem alignment to prevent fragmentation or politicization are real hurdles. These are the very factors that have constrained previous bio-based innovations.

Overcoming them will require coordinated action across industries, policymakers and value chains.

Technology alone is insufficient. Markets must be shaped alongside molecules.

Building the Circular Materials Economy With Renewable Polymers

The roadmap ahead is collaborative by design.

In the near term (2026–2027), enzymatic biomaterials will expand into textiles, nonwovens, packaging, composites and advanced coatings, enabled by new production capacity and application partnerships. But scaling beyond early adoption will depend on more than technological progress alone.

Policy frameworks must evolve to support early adopters, streamline regulatory pathways and accelerate circular infrastructure. At the same time, value chains must align, from feedstock sourcing to end-of-life systems, to ensure these materials can compete at global scale.

Over the longer horizon, next-generation biomaterials unlock entirely new categories, from lightweight automotive composites to advanced hygiene substrates and next-generation packaging systems. All can contribute meaningfully to the projected $45 to $50 billion bio-based polymers market while advancing net-zero commitments across industries.

Integrated with data science and AI-driven molecular design, enzymatic biomaterials become more than materials: They have the potential to transform not just materials, but manufacturing itself.

Realizing that potential will require something the materials industry has historically struggled to build: true cross-value-chain collaboration.

Why Partnerships Will Define the Future of Biopolymers

The bioeconomy will not scale through breakthroughs alone. It will be built through partnerships that connect scientific innovation with industrial capability, market access and infrastructure.

This is where many promising biomaterials have historically stalled. Not due to lack of performance, but because no single player can solve for cost, scale, regulation and end-of-life systems in isolation. Progress depends on coordinated ecosystems, not standalone technologies.

The companies that succeed will be those that build partnerships deliberately, aligning science, manufacturing and market access from the outset. At IFF, we’ve structured our partnerships with that reality in mind. Rather than operating in silos, we work alongside organizations that bring complementary strengths — from application expertise and manufacturing scale to supply-chain integration and market reach — to accelerate the transition from promising innovation to commercially viable solutions.

Our partnerships do more than advance individual products. They help build the infrastructure, reduce adoption risk and align value chains in ways that make sustainable materials viable at global scale.

Let’s Scale Biopolymers for Sustainable Materials — Together

Advancing the bioeconomy is not about any one company acting alone. It requires ecosystems of partners aligned around a shared goal: delivering high-performance, sustainable solutions that can compete — and win — at scale.

This moment calls for formulators who can unlock new performance possibilities, engineers who can optimize end-of-life systems, strategists who can shape enabling policy incentives and innovators ready to apply biomaterials in entirely new ways.

The science is ready. The economics are aligning. The partnerships are forming.

The remaining question is not whether renewable, high-performance materials can compete, but whether we will move fast enough to make them the norm rather than the exception.

A strong foundation has been laid. Let’s build the future of materials — together.

Leticia Gonçalves serves as President of Health & Biosciences at International Flavors & Fragrances Inc., a role she assumed in March 2025. Inspired by nature and driven by creativity and innovation, she leads IFF’s efforts to deliver sustainable, high-performance solutions across health, nutrition and biosciences. With deep experience in food technology, biotechnology and business leadership, including prior executive roles at ADM, she is committed to advancing the bioeconomy through science-based collaboration and customer-centric innovation.