Cellugy Secures €8.1M to Remove Microplastics From the Personal Care Industry With New Bio-Based Alternative
BIOCARE4LIFE, a project by Danish biotech company Cellugy, has received an €8.1 million grant from the EU’s LIFE Programme, which provides funding to projects supporting environment and climate action. The funding will be used to scale up the production of Cellugy’s biofabricated cellulose-based rheology modifier material, EcoFLEXY. Made using fermentation, the vegan-friendly material is designed to replace fossil-based carbomers, which are often considered microplastics, in cosmetics. BIOCARE4LIFE will work on critical scaling activities, process optimisation, and commercial validation over a four-year period. EcoFLEXY is said to significantly reduce environmental pollution and the use of hazardous chemicals in the cosmetics sector. It also reportedly provides superior product performance, adaptable sensorial properties, and scalable, operationally efficient manufacturing. This could bridge the gap between the performance of fossil-based …