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You might have seen headlines in the business press lately about the pain currently being suffered by the European chemicals industry.

Could today’s startup provide a solution? Its co-founder believes so. Read on to find out all about Eutechtics.

– Martin

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Eutechtics could provide an answer to the chemical industry’s woes

You can practically feel the pain in the European chemicals industry when one of its leaders, Ineos, plainly states that the sector is “on the brink of extinction“.

Increasing environmental regulations are putting pressure on European players in the space. Competitors in parts of the world with a more laissez-faire attitude to the future of the planet don’t have to worry about increasing overheads from regulatory compliance, and they often enjoy cheaper energy costs, too.

Ineos chair and Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe is pushing hard against the EU over the challenges, while Germany’s chemicals sector is making similarly cataclysmic noises.

Enter Eutechtics, which aims to “decarbonise the chemicals sector” with a product it calls EvoCarbon.

The startup is focused, for now, on a sector of the market that produces carboxylic acids. EvoCarbon converts captured CO2 into these acids, which are used in a wide range of foods, drinks, and pharmaceutical products.

“We are trying to decarbonise an industry that has not been moving from fossil fuel dependency. The other problem that is people are capturing CO2, but how can they use that CO2 in a more efficient way? So we’re tackling two problems,” says co-founder Armando Leal Puente.

“We are replacing the petrochemical feedstock that all these acids use. We are using carbon dioxide and this process is enabled by our new generation of green solvents.”

Puente says the process is more efficient than others on the market, offering a reduction of energy consumption of up to 50%. What’s more, the startup’s single ‘modular’ process can produce multiple acids with simple tweaks, as opposed to requiring a separate process for each acid.

The carboxylic acid market is estimated to be around $21.2 billion, growing to $34.5 billion over the next 10 years thanks to increased demand across sectors like food, pharma, and personal care.

As an early stage startup, Eutechtics isn’t going straight into serving the entire market. It has decided to begin by focusing on the production of benzoic acid, a commonly used carboxylic acid.

The story so far

Puente met his fellow co-founder Mauricio Murillo at the University of York. They were both originally from Mexico and had an interest in sustainability, from an engineering and chemistry perspective respectively.

Murillo had been experimenting with the deep eutectic solvents that underpin Eutechtics’ work for some time, and after finalising his PhD he brought Puente on board to explore some ideas around them. It’s worth noting, however, that they’re not a university spinout.

Coming up with the seed of the idea for EvoCarbon, they presented it at a conference in Egypt two years ago, after which they decided to go all-in on building a startup.

Puente and Murillo worked with climate-focused venture builder Prosemino to get Eutechtics started.

Puente and Murillo are busy working on developing EvoCarbon as a commercial product, with the aim of being ready by the end of 2026 to bring it to market in its first form.

They are open to speaking to any carboxylic acid users across different sectors to understand their pain points, cost requirements, and specific acids they’re interested in.

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