Wim Soetaert (Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant): “Innovation is the hardest thing there is.”
Enzymes are actually nature's catalysts. So they can be an excellent alternative for a chemical industry on its way to greater sustainability. But how do you make the right match with your production? Traditionally a long process of trial and error. The intercluster Enzymares project (Catalisti, Blue Cluster and Flanders' Food) therefore developed a toolbox to make it easier to identify and valorize enzymes for industrial use. Not only on a lab scale. In the Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant, selected enzymes were also produced on a much larger scale. Thus, this pilot plant once again proves its usefulness in bridging the ‘Valley of Death’, where innovation so often fails. A portrait of a facility, unique in the world.
Make an impact
The Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant is the brainchild of Prof. Wim Soetaert, who specializes in industrial biotechnology. Although that Prof. in front of his name got there rather by accident. “It was never the plan. After my studies, I actually wanted to enter the industry. To see the outside world, to do business. That worked out well for thirteen years when I was active as a R&D director for large scale biorefineries in France and Germany. When I wanted to come back to Belgium I somehow ended up in academia”
His drive, however, remained the same. “Having publications behind my name is not my primary driver. I want to have impact in the real world, to contribute to practical realizations, new products on the market that make the world a better place. That's actually the intrinsic motivation that every employee of the Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant shares.”
Because it is necessary
That drive was also needed to start up a pilot plant in 2008 from the ashes of an abandoned fire station (figuratively, that is, because the building still exhibits many of its original features, including the gliding poles). “I didn't have a solid business case. Only the firm belief that ‘the world needs this’. Innovation is the hardest thing there is. Innovation typically goes wrong in the so-called Valley of Death. When you scale up from the lab to industrial scale, the costs will skyrocket. And when things do not work out as planned, investors lose confidence and the innovation fails. Bridging the gap between lab and industrial practice is notoriously difficult. A pilot plant makes that bridge. But it is very difficult for established companies to organize that profitably themselves. That requires a dynamic inherent in start-ups and sufficient resources to learn from things that go wrong. Because make no mistake, innovation costs tons of money. I often say that to get to the first kilogram of any new product costs at least a million euros. And that’s just the beginning.”
Bridging the gap between lab and industrial practice is notoriously difficult. A pilot plant makes that bridge. But it is very difficult for established companies to organize that profitably themselves. That requires a dynamic inherent in start-ups and sufficient resources to learn from things that go wrong. Because make no mistake, innovation costs tons of money. I often say that to get to the first kilogram of any new product costs at least a million euros. And that’s just the beginning.
Smartphones
Although the Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant anno 2025 is proving its usefulness to companies around the world, Soetaert needed all his convincing at the onset to find the necessary funding. He needed 21 million euros to make his dream a reality. “Nobody believed in it, not even the predecessor of Catalisti believed it was feasible”, he tells us with a wink. “The government looked to the industry, but the industry wanted to be sure of the demand first. That’s the problem with new concepts: there is no demand for it, no previous experience, no reliable data, hence no business case. Nobody was waiting for the first smartphone either but now look how it is part of our daily lives.”
A question of credibility
“Eventually, I got it going thanks to a European project”, Says Soetaert. Which immediately explains the Europe in the name of the pilot plant. “I had built credibility by establishing the Ghent Bio-Energy Valley cluster. Thanks to Ghent Bio-energy Valley, we were able to collaborate instead of competing each other here in Ghent. When the government set up a quota system for biofuels, our Ghent dossier passed with flying colors. 90% of the biofuel quota landed in the port of Ghent, because we focused on industrial clustering, where one company's waste stream can be the raw material for another. The result was the establishment of the largest bio-energy cluster in Europe: a huge biorefinery complex of about 4 km² in the port of Ghent.”
Most successful Interreg project ever
“In comparison – the biofuel cluster involved an initial investment of 500 million euros - the 21 million euros I needed for the pilot plant was peanuts”, Soetaert continued. “The fact that I had already acquired a building in the shadow of this biorefinery cluster made the project immediately tangible. It was no longer a paper idea but a real thing made out of concrete and steel.”
“We got started thanks to an Intereg project. This Interreg project had the biggest budget ever, but it was also the most successful Interreg project in the end. The project allowed us to buy the right equipment and hire people to get a flying start. But it was just a start and over the years we have invested much more. That’s the tragedy of a pilot plant: it requires really large investments and a very long development time. There’s a reason why there are so few of them in the world.”
Up to five projects simultaneously
Today, Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant can call itself the largest pilot plant for biobased products and processes worldwide. It has about 150 employees and has a turnover of about 25 million euros. “Our model is not focused on one company or product. Every year we are involved in about a hundred different projects. By looking broadly, we can achieve sufficient critical mass to be sustainable and profitable. The whole world comes to Ghent for the development of their bioprocess”, Soetaert says proudly.
Over the years, the Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant has been growing by about 25% a year. “Only last year we didn't achieve that growth, because the economy has basically grinded to a halt.”
The most important factor in this success, according to Soetaert, is hard work. “From me, but also from each of the employees here. You won't make it here with a nine-to-five mentality. But young people today want more than to just make money. They want an interesting job with a positive impact on the world. Greenwashing? They look right through that.”
Bio-based products or processes
But with its focus on bio-based ingredients and processes, Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant does know how to strike the right sustainability chord. “Our society used to have only bio-based raw materials. With the advent of petrochemicals, the pendulum swung the other way. Now everything biobased is coming up again. But actually they are perfectly complementary. We also prove that here with many hybrid processes, combining biotechnology with chemistry. As long as the sum of the whole is the most efficient and sustainable way to make a product. But if neither biobased products nor biobased processes are involved, then we pass”, Soetaert says resolutely. “Our focus is on scaling up biobased products and processes. We scale up these processes, optimize and improve them until they are workable at the industrial level. In summary, we start from TRL 3 and go up to TRL 9.”
Our focus is on scaling up biobased products and processes. We scale up these processes, optimize and improve them until they are workable at the industrial level. In summary, we start from TRL 3 and go up to TRL 9.
Everything under one roof
This has led to particularly wonderful innovations over the past 15 years. Asking him about his favorite innovation is hard. “That's like having to choose which of your children you like best”, Soetaert laughs. He does, however, list a number of projects that they have worked on: microbial proteins, biocolorants, spider silk, biosurfactants, biopesticides,... “Everything that can be synthesized biologically, we can make it through fermentation, using microorganisms and without any animals involved. That variety is just the beauty of how we work here: every day is a new adventure. Moreover, everything happens here under one roof: from the feedstock preparation to the actual fermentation and the downstream processes that follow. We are a one-stop shop from the biomass feedstock to the refined bioproduct.”
Building trust
Yet it's not only about the products. “Basically, what we actually do here is to build trust. Trust in the technology is what makes the difference. That 500 kg of a new product that we developed and produced is ultimately not the most important thing. What is important is that your technology is validated, that your customers and investors are convinced and that you can raise money, build a factory and get to the market. We can do that faster, better and cheaper than when our customers would do it themselves by building their own pilot plant. It makes absolutely no sense for a company to build its own pilot plant. It takes an enormous amount of money, time and effort. Come to us instead: we have all the equipment and the right expertise and resources already in-house.”
“We are very proud of the latest icing on our cake: our brand new 75 m³ fermentation line. Five times the size of the largest fermenter that we had. It’s part of a broader investment program of 34 million euros with which our entire fermentation capacity has been tripled. We are also particularly proud that numerous policy papers in the US refer to us as the ‘gold standard’ pilot plant. The Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant is the envy of the world, and we will do whatever it takes to keep it that way." Soetaert concludes.