Instead of treating industrial by-products as waste, a new European project is transforming potato processing side-streams into valuable bio-based chemicals. The initiative could help reshape how existing industries adopt circular manufacturing.
The PACE (Potato Juice to Fatty Acids for New Bio-based Value-Chains in Europe) initiative will create Europe’s first full-scale retrofitted biorefinery, converting potato juice side-streams into sustainable medium-chain fatty acids for use across the chemical industry.
Rather than building a new facility from scratch, the project will retrofit part of Royal Avebe’s existing production plant, demonstrating how circular chemistry can be integrated into existing industrial infrastructure.
Using advanced fermentation and microbial processing, the biorefinery aims to reduce dependence on fossil and palm oil-based chemicals while creating more resilient local value chains.
The four-year initiative officially launched in Amsterdam in June 2026 and brings together partners from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Spain and Greece. If successful, the approach could provide a scalable model for turning industrial side-streams into commercially valuable resources across Europe.
As project coordinator Niels van Stralen noted, the goal is to show that sustainable chemistry can become part of existing industrial systems at meaningful scale, helping accelerate Europe’s transition towards a more circular economy.
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