On to the top of the the podium with textile recycling: re.solution wins ACHEMA Start-up Award 2024

For the fourth time, DECHEMA, High-Tech Gründerfonds and Business Angels FrankfurtRheinMain were looking for entrepreneurial scientists and founders with an affinity for technology. The fact that start-ups are now an integral part of the process industry was demonstrated not only by the number and quality of the applications, but also by the range of innovations on which the start-ups are based. This clearly reflects the general industry trends of sustainability and digitalization.

This also applies to the winning start-up: re.solution was founded at RWTH Aachen University in 2023 and aims to tackle the growing mountains of used textiles with chemical recycling.

The proprietary process runs on renewable energy and thus achieves a lower carbon footprint while consuming less chemicals and water in comparison with similar technologies. It is further designed to overcome textile-specific recycling challenges like the recycling of fibre blends and the removal of impurities. Due to its robustness and a high product quality, the process is economically competitive compared to polyester’s fossil route. The long-term ambition is to develop and operate plants at an industrial scale.

The jury was impressed by re.solution's innovative idea, a scalable process and a solid business plan. However, the selection was not easy, as the finalists were very close to each other in the evaluation. They offer an interesting portfolio for investors and potential industrial partners:

• Biosimo AG wants to drive the transformation of the chemical industry towards greater sustainability with basic chemicals made from renewable raw materials.
• ChemInnovation has developed the AI model METIS. It enables the automated structural elucidation of unknown molecules based on mass spectra.
• co2ol catalyst uses a robust catalyst to produce methanol from CO2 - even from sources that could previously only be used with additional purification stages.
• eco:fibr has developed an extraction process with which pulp for the paper and cardboard industry can be obtained from pineapple plant residues.
• Graph-Co offers the digitization and migration of technical flow charts for the process industry under the brand name Graph-ID.
• Inline Process Solutions GmbH analyzes particle flows in plants inline with the help of image-optical AI-based sensor technology.
• LABMaiTE GmbH fully automatically optimizes the culture media for fermentative bioprocesses and thus accelerates their development.
• Nanolope offers versatile heat storage solutions based on a phase change material.
• PHABIOC develops innovative tools, microplates and analyzers for screening on a small scale and with a high throughput rate in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology.

Since 2015, the ACHEMA Start-up Award is sponsored every three years by DECHEMA Gesellschaft für Chemische Technik und Biotechnologie e.V., DECHEMA Ausstellungs-GmbH, Business Angels FrankfurtRheinMain e.V. and High-Tech Gründerfonds. The ACHEMA Start-up Award is also supported by the German Chemical Society (GDCh), the Association of German Engineers (VDI), the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI), the AiF InnovatorsNet, BCNP Consultants, the Business Angels Network Germany and the Forum Startup Chemie.

If you want to get to know the ten start-ups in person, you have the opportunity to do so in the Start-up Area (Hall 6.0) at ACHEMA until June 14, 2024.