may 22, 2026 | from tomato waste to advanced biopolymers
NSBproject at EUBCE 2026
The Hague, NL | 19–22 May 2026
The POLYMERS-5B European project takes the stage at the European Biomass Conference & Exhibition in The Hague, where NSBproject presents its AI-driven competitive intelligence engine to map the real industrial opportunities for bio-based materials.
"The challenge today is not simply producing a bioplastic from agricultural waste — it is mapping the market to understand where that technology generates real economic and industrial value."
About the Event
NSBProject participated in EUBCE 2026 — European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, one of Europe’s leading international events dedicated to biomass, bioeconomy, bioenergy, and biomaterials, held from 19 to 22 May in The Hague, Netherlands. The occasion served as a privileged stage to present the latest advances of POLYMERS-5B, a four-year European research project funded by the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) — the public-private partnership between the European Commission and the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC).
The participation took the form of a scientific poster presentation, allowing NSBProject — acting as Innovation Broker within the consortium — to share the project’s industrial validation results and competitive positioning analysis with the international research community, industrial stakeholders, and European policymakers gathered at the conference.
Turning Mediterranean By-products into High-Performance Materials
POLYMERS-5B, coordinated by Instituto Superior Técnico para a Investigação e o Desenvolvimento (IST-ID) in Lisbon, brings together 12 European partners in the mission to develop new bio-based polymers through biocatalysis and green chemistry. The feedstocks are entirely second-generation: tomato processing residues, olive oil production by-products, and lignocellulosic biomass — waste streams that are currently underutilised yet abundant across the Mediterranean agri-food belt.
Unlike conventional bioplastics derived from dedicated crops, POLYMERS-5B avoids any competition with the food supply chain. Its enzymatic and mild chemical polymerisation processes, developed by the team led by Professor Luis Fonseca at the University of Lisbon, allow novel bio-based polyesters to be obtained under low-impact conditions, significantly reducing reliance on aggressive solvents and energy-intensive steps.
The technology has already reached Technology Readiness Level 5 (TRL 5), with pilot-scale production of reproducible batches up to 15 kg. Key validated material properties include a carbon footprint reduction of up to 50% (Cradle-to-Gate) compared to fossil equivalents, thermal stability above 80°C (Tg ≥ 80°C) suitable for industrial moulding processes, and a Young’s Modulus of approximately 2 GPa — making these polymers structurally comparable to traditional petrochemical plastics.
The Role of C-Tech Navigator®: From Research to Market Intelligence
One of the most significant contributions presented at EUBCE by NSBProject concerned the competitive positioning work conducted through its proprietary strategic intelligence system, C-Tech Navigator®.
Applied to POLYMERS-5B, C-Tech Navigator® enabled a structured comparison of the project’s materials with leading competing technologies on the European bio-based polymers market — in particular PEF (polyethylene furanoate) and PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoates). The analysis mapped performance profiles, industrial constraints, and application niches across each technology, exposing a clear Market Gap: an underserved European industrial space where POLYMERS-5B materials can express maximum competitiveness by combining radical sustainability, process scalability, and the structural mechanical performance demanded by automotive and technical textile manufacturers.
"Many bio-based technologies on the market today force a trade-off: PEF delivers excellent performance but is optimised almost exclusively for rigid beverage packaging, while PHAs excel in biodegradability but struggle under industrial thermal processing. The work carried out with our C-Tech Navigator® intelligence engine allowed us to identify a genuine Market Gap — an uncontested European industrial space where POLYMERS-5B materials can deliver maximum competitiveness, combining radical sustainability, scalability, and the structural resistance demanded by automotive and technical textiles."
EUBCE represents precisely the kind of international platform where this dual contribution — scientific advancement and strategic market intelligence — finds its most receptive audience. With researchers, industrial players, investors, and EU policymakers all converging in the same space, the conference provided an ideal environment to demonstrate how C-Tech Navigator® bridges the gap between cutting-edge European research and concrete industrial deployment strategies.
