Senbis: Where the (artificial) grass is really greener

Located in the northern part of the Netherlands, Senbis Polymer Innovations has what may be a unique business set-up: it offers industrial R&D services focused on polyesters in general and filaments & yarns particular, in combination with own product developments, with a focus on biodegradable materials. “We don’t have a lot of commercial competitors,” noted co-owner and managing director, Gerard Nijhoving. The latest project? Completely compostable artificial turf systems.

“Artificial grass is a yarn, and with our expertise in yarns and filaments, it was a product that made sense for us,” said Nijhoving. “Artificial turf is here to stay, so why not make it more sustainable? Right now, there is no good end-of-life solution for discarded artificial turf systems. Together with our partners in the project, we are working hard to develop one.”

A young company but a long history

Senbis Polymer Innovations is a relatively new name in the plastics world. Gerard Nijhoving’s previous company was called Senbis –short for sustainable energy business – whose activities were more focused on sustainable energy and biodiesel.

Nijhoving, at that time an Emmen-based freelance business consultant, then came into contact with a company called Applied Polymer Innovations – API - and its shareholders, which he ultimately went on to acquire, together with an investor.

“That’s where the Polymer Innovations part of the name comes from,” he said. “It describes exactly what we do, so I kept it.”

API was a company that had emerged in 2008 from the former research and development department of Diolen Industrial Fibers, a producer of polyester yarns, in Emmen. Diolen, itself an offshoot of AkzoNobel, became insolvent in 2008. Its R&D department continued independently under the name API.

“In other words, the PET production disappeared, but all facilities, all this specialist  knowledge and expertise accumulated over decades were still here. And unlike the academic research carried out at universities, our capabilities are oriented towards industrial polymer development. We have a pilot plant here with facilities that you can upscale to a metric ton a day,” Nijhoving explained.

As an R&D service provider, API also developed innovative activities of its own, one of which was the production of monofilaments for 3D printing.

“Because of its long history in yarns, monofilaments and multifilaments, increasing numbers of customers – polymer producers – were turning to API, asking for 3D printing grades of their products, to produce filaments. While research activities are hard to scale up, these innovations were much less so.”

This led to the creation of a spin-off company, called Innofil 3D, wholly specialised in 3D printing filaments. The venture grew more and more successful, becoming the focus of further investment for the shareholders. The question was, what to do with the research activities?

“I saw an opportunity,” said Nijhoving. “They had already done a lot of work in biopolymers and were looking into different applications.  I thought that would be an area in which the company should have more focus. We decided it would be better to split off: they would focus on the 3D printing while I suggested I would take over the research activities, so that we could realise the ideas that we had for biodegradable polymers.”

That was around five years ago. The acquisition was completed in 2016 and on 1 January 2017, under the two new owners, API became Senbis Polymer Innovations B.V. The former shareholders focused on the 3D printing company - and then sold it to BASF. That, said Nijhoving, is confirmation that a small research company can indeed develop an innovation that a large established company could view as an extension to their own capabilities. “A huge compliment.”

Filaments, yarns – and biopolymers

“If you look at the capabilities we have here for developing and upscaling filaments and yarns, it’s unique in Europe, and maybe in the world,” said Nijhoving. “So when we took over the company, we were clear that we wanted to focus on filaments and multifilament yarn products made from biodegradable polymers. That is really our specialisation.”

Today, Senbis Polymer Innovation has grown into a professional research organisation serving customers around the world. Its activities are two-pronged: the company operates as an independent R&D company with a focus on high-end polymer applications for yarns, fibers, monofilaments, engineering plastics and composites, with an emphasis on biopolymers, recycling and 3D printing. Next to this contract research, Senbis also develops its own industrial biodegradable spin-off products.

The two activities, said Nijhoving, are complementary. “We learn so much from our R&D activities. We never use the knowledge directly gained from our customers in our own products – but you always learn indirectly. The products we develop ourselves help us to better advise our R&D customers. We do trials with biopolymers almost on a daily basis, so when customers need support with developing a new biopolymer yarn, for example, we have that experience to support them,” he explained.

The focus is on biodegradable polymers in different environments, depending on the application needs, rather than on replacing conventional polymers with renewably-sourced ones. The emphasis is on applications in which biodegradability has a function, not on transitioning to bio-based feedstocks.

For Senbis, this means that typical market areas are agriculture, horticulture, fishery, greenery and sports: all industries where the likelihood is high that the products will end up in the environment or in an organic waste stream.

“For us, having an R&D company and a production company go very well hand-in-hand,” said Nijhoving. Describing the production side as ‘a high potential’, he explained that Senbis had been working for three to four years on the development upscaling of a number of products and ‘we are now in the phase of bringing them all to the market’.

“We’ve launched a new brand called Senbis Sustainable Products, which will be a separate company soon. Under this new brand we are going to execute the production – via toll manufacturing, we do very little production ourselves -  and the sale of these products, all developed within our R&D company. Commercialisation is scheduled for next year. With our long industrial history and the network we’ve built up as an R&D service provider, we know where to find the technology that we need to upscale these products.”

He added: “We really try to stay close to our core  - we are good in innovation  - we are a company that generates knowledge, either for our customers or ourselves. Developing new products is what we are good at.”

Biodegradability as a function

What kind of products has Senbis been working on? Among others, PLA yarn, horticultural twine, fishery rope, trimmer lines – and for sports applications, artificial turf infill and now, too, an entire artificial turf system.

“Applications where biodegradability is an advantage, in sectors where it has an added value” said Nijhoving. “Because, right now, there are two main issues with bioplastics: in the first place, they are almost all more expensive than conventional plastics, and second, the properties of many of these materials – in particular, the mechanical properties – are also lower.”

With compounding, the performance can be improved, becoming comparable to that of the polyolefins. But replacing engineering plastics is almost impossible, he said. “So right now our niche is to look for applications where biodegradability offers a benefit, that conventional plastics cannot.”

He outlines the three situational drivers for, in his view, a business case for this type of product.

“The first one is where there is a cost saving – for example, because the need for waste treatment is eliminated. Our horticulture twine is an example – at the end of the season, when all the plant waste is swept out of the glasshouse, there’s no need to separate the PLA twine from the rest – it can all go to the composting facility. Growers using polypropylene garden twine must pay substantial amounts to process their waste: even though only relatively small amounts of twine are mixed in, the impact is big,” he explained.

Second, a case can be made for using a biodegradable material in examples where the end price of the raw material has a negligent effect on the end price. Trimmer lines – the plastic string in the trimmer head that does the cutting – wear down with use, shedding plastic, usually non-degradable polyamide, into the environment. Used by professional gardeners who charge a fee for their services, soil degradable trimmer lines ultimately add very little to the cost of the service, as by far the greatest part of the fee represents labour costs.

However, the benefit to the environment is considerable. “It’s a great unique selling point,” said Nijhoving, “And one that in this case weighs far more heavily than the cost of the resin.”

Third,  government regulations can provide a business case. “For example, we have developed a product for fishery applications. However,  fishermen save no costs if they opt for our marine degradable option and there is no immediate USP: no one pays more for fish caught with marine degradable fishing gear. The only option in that case is government regulation or government support,” said Nijhoving.

It is something he strongly believes in. “It’s why we decided to invest in the company. We do think there is going to be a big growth in sustainability – also in materials and plastics.”

Nijhoving noted that legislation on plastics is dragging, compared to other industries. In energy and transport fuels, legislation and government support have created enormous markets for sustainable solutions. Yet things are finally starting to happen, he said, pointing to ECHA’s proposal to ban intentionally added microplastics in products placed on the EU/EEA market. The restriction would exclude biodegradable materials that meet specific criteria.

“And that might be a big opportunity for companies like ours,” Nijhoving noted. The ECHA legislation specifically also targets the sports industry, which is one of the sectors in which Senbis is active, and in particular, the infill material for artificial turf, which is one of the products developed by the company.

“If that legislation is pushed through, it is going to be a gamechanger – literally,” he added.

Greener grass

Senbis has a fully developed biodegradable infill product with an excellent sports performance called Greenfill, that can replace the controversial granulated tire rubber currently used. Infill tends to disappear into the surrounding environment, which is why the product has been specifically designed to be soil degradable. It provides more playing comfort than other new sustainable infills entering the market such as recycled PE. However, the price of GreenFill is significantly higher than the tire waste granulates, which means that if sustainability is not a specific requirement, the municipality and clubs laying the turf won’t decide in favour of the greener alternative. “We can never win on price,” he said.

Knowing that, why has the company now embarked on a project to develop an entire compostable artificial turf system? And would natural grass not do just as well?

“Natural grass is often not a solution in urbanized areas, where a growing percentage of the world’s population lives – and plays,” he explained. “Senbis is a company that provides solutions for specific markets. Now, there is already a market for artificial grass. We are just trying to make it a more sustainable product. We think a high market potential exists for our compostable artificial grass system.”

The development of the new artificial turf system with a good end-of-life solution is a project funded by the Dutch government. An artificial turf system is composed of three main components: the grass yarn, which is typically PE;  the first backing, usually a PP woven structure; and a secondary backing, which is typically a latex coating.

“There is currently no end-of-life-solution for these grass systems,” explained Nijhoving. “Some recycling efforts have fortunately started in Western Europe, but mostly, once discarded, these turf systems are stored, burned, or piled up in a landfill.

The Dutch government put the project out to tender and subsequently awarded it to two different contenders, each with a different approach. One was a group that is developing a system entirely made of PET, which would enable it to be more easily recycled; the other winner was a consortium made up of Senbis Polymer Innovations, Sweco Nederland, Antea Sport, EdelGrass and TenCate Grass, whose GreenMaxx system will be, at the very least, wholly industrially compostable.

Senbis will focus on the development of biopolymer compounds for the textiles and grass yarns.

“Developing a yarn that is soil degradable also provides added value. The yarn often gets damaged, breaks off and spreads in the direct environment of the playing field. So there is a big demand for a solution for the yarn itself, apart from the infill,” he said.

The pressure is on: under the terms of the tender, the consortium must demonstrate the product in one year, laying a small pitch with the new system.

“We have to get it done,” he concluded.

Ambitious outlook

Looking towards the future, there is no shortage of plans for the further development of Senbis Polymer Innovations. Asked about where he sees the company in another five years, Gerard Nijhoving confidently predicted a fivefold increase in revenue and ebitda, with twice the number of employees.

“By that time we will have several biodegradable products on the market. Plus, we are already investing millions in new R&D infrastructure to extend our facilities over the next two-three years through a subsidiary company, SPIC Facilities BV, and in five years’ time, this will all be up and running. We will be upscaling different technologies there for ourselves and for other companies,” he said

His greatest ambition, however, is for Senbis to have developed a new biopolymer resin that in five years will be ready for upscaling. That is the bigger goal for the long term.

“Short term: applications coming to the market – mostly yarns and filaments. But actually I want to solve the problem we talked about: the problem that the mechanical properties are not where they should be with biopolymers for them to be  competitive, and their high price. So I want to focus on a biodegradable polymer that is lower priced, with excellent mechanical properties,” he said.

“I think we can develop it – and then we need a big industrial partner that can upscale it and bring to the market – and you need huge production facilities, in this case for polycondensation, to get to the economies of scale to make that affordable. But I think that could be a big solution for biopolymers in the future.”

Does he see the use of biopolymers expanding?  “Unlike most experts in this industry, I expect a much bigger growth for (non-biobased) biodegradable polymers than for fully biobased polymers. Why? Ease of production and the large scale availability of low-priced feedstock.   Biotechnology and polymer chemistry are a very different expertise and line of business, which need to cooperate hand in hand before large-scale market introduction and acceptance can be successful. Not many companies can do both. Producing low-priced biobased monomers with a high purity for successful and stable polymerisations is a challenge and only a few industry players are successful.

“In addition, If the aim is to reduce the consumption of oil, we should work to improve our recycling rate, as then, we would need a lot less oil for generating new plastics. Working with a renewable feedstock is a noble cause, but I think there are easier, faster and more impactful goals. I put my money on biodegradability and recycling, rather than making the world biobased. “