BioBTX Lands €80M+ for Commercial-Scale Renewable Aromatics Plant

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) From the Netherlands comes exciting news: BioBTX, a pioneering developer of renewable aromatics technology, has secured over €80 million to launch its first commercial-scale plant. This investment will fund the world’s first renewable chemicals plant utilizing BioBTX’s innovative ICCP Technology to produce sustainable aromatics — benzene, toluene and xylene — from plastic waste and biomass.

By converting plastic waste and biomass into renewable aromatics, BioBTX is spearheading the creation of a circular chemical industry, significantly reducing carbon emissions and reliance on fossil fuels. Aromatics, essential for producing every-day products like insulating foams, coatings, PET bottles, batteries, and pharmaceuticals, will now have a sustainable alternative to fossil-based sources, presenting a major opportunity for circular business models.

The BioBTX backstory

The BioBTX project will be located at the PETRA Circular Chemicals Plant in Delfzijl. The PETRA plant will convert 20,000 tons of mixed plastic waste annually into renewable aromatics, replacing fossil resources and recycling low-value plastic waste into high-value chemicals. Once production is proven, the company intends to roll out the technology to chemical industry customers world-wide.

BioBTX has successfully demonstrated the its ICCP technology on its Pilot Plant in Groningen, the Netherlands.

The financing in detail

Groningen, 15 October 2026 – BioBTX today announces that it has signed a grant agreement with the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) for its PETRA project. The EU Innovation Fund will contribute €20.8 million from its IF24 Net-Zero Technologies mid-scale call to the construction of PETRA at Chemie Park Delfzijl, the world’s first commercial-scale plant converting plastic waste directly into renewable aromatics. The grant follows BioBTX’s positive Final Investment Decision for PETRA in July 2026.

PETRA is the first industrial-scale application of BioBTX’s in-house developed ICCP technology. The plant will process around 20,000 tonnes per year of mixed plastic waste that cannot be recycled mechanically and would otherwise be incinerated. It will produce around 10,000 tonnes per year of renewable aromatic oil, rich in benzene, toluene and xylenes (BTX). These aromatics are essential building blocks for the plastics and pharmaceutical industries. Today more than 99% of BTX is fossil-based. PETRA is the only project in the EU producing these aromatics directly from mixed plastic waste.

“Securing this grant from the EU Innovation Fund is a strong recognition of our technology and of the team that has worked towards this moment in the last years,” says Ton Vries, CEO of BioBTX. “This grant is an important building block in the realization of PETRA and shows that Europe believes in producing its critical chemicals from waste instead of fossil oil. With PETRA, we are building the first circular aromatics plant in the world, right here in Groningen.”

PETRA will deliver direct climate benefits by diverting plastic waste from incineration and replacing fossil feedstocks. According to the Innovation Fund methodology, the project achieves 72% greenhouse gas emission avoidance compared with fossil-based aromatics production and incineration of mixed plastic waste. Over its first ten years of operation, PETRA is expected to avoid more than 517,000 tonnes of CO₂-equivalent, comparable to the annual emissions of around 100,000 petrol cars.

PETRA also strengthens the Northern Netherlands as a hub for sustainable chemistry. The plant will create around 35 direct jobs at Chemie Park Delfzijl, supported by additional work for regional suppliers in engineering and construction. As a first-of-a-kind reference plant, PETRA paves the way for replication across Europe and positions Groningen at the forefront of circular chemistry. The project contributes to key EU policies, including the European Green Deal, the Clean Industrial Deal, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation and the Critical Chemicals Act.

BioBTX is a leading circular chemistry technology developer based in Groningen, the Netherlands. Founded in 2012, BioBTX develops technologies that replace fossil resources with plastic waste and biomass for the production of drop-in chemicals and renewable aromatics (BTX), enabling sustainable and future-proof materials. Having successfully demonstrated its proprietary ICCP technology at its pilot plant in Groningen, BioBTX is now realising the world’s first commercial-scale renewable aromatics plant at the Chemical Park Delfzijl. Beyond this first plant, BioBTX aims to roll out and license its technology to partners worldwide. BioBTX’ mission is to make circular chemistry possible and to accelerate the transition towards a defossilised, circular chemical industry (www.biobtx.com).

The ICCP (Integrated Catalytic Cracking Process) technology, developed in-house by BioBTX, converts plastic waste and biomass into renewable aromatics. The process consists of two integrated steps: the feedstock, plastic waste and biomass, is first thermally cracked in the absence of oxygen, after which the resulting vapours are catalytically upgraded into aromatic oil. Separating these two stages allows precise control of reaction conditions, longer catalyst lifetimes and the ability to process mixed and contaminated waste streams that conventional recycling cannot handle. The resulting BTX – benzene, toluene and xylenes – are drop-in chemical building blocks, chemically identical to their fossil-derived counterparts, and can be used directly in existing value chains for products such as pharmaceuticals, coatings, adhesives and performance materials.

The Innovation Fund is one of the world’s largest funding programmes for the demonstration and commercialisation of innovative low-carbon technologies. It is financed by revenues from the auctioning of allowances under the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and is managed by CINEA on behalf of the European Commission.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. READ MORE