Colour pigments are used in the production of wall paints and varnishes, as well as in food and many other consumer goods. The Fribourg-based start-up Seprify AG is the first company in the world to produce white pigment from a plant-based material, cellulose.
White walls, white sweets, white sun cream and headache tablets – we are surrounded by the colour white throughout our lives. What gives these and many other things their white colour are white pigments. Until now, the latter were mainly produced from titanium dioxide; however, this metallic compound is now suspected of damaging the human genome. As a consequence, its use in food has recently been banned in Switzerland and many other European countries. Another drawback is that the synthetic production of titanium dioxide generates climate-damaging carbon emissions CO2.
Technology
Seprify, a start-up founded in 2022, has developed an alternative. Instead of using titanium dioxide, the company produces white pigment from cellulose – this is a natural substance that occurs in all plants and has long been used for paper production, among other things. Seprify founder Lukas Schertel, a trained physicist with specialised knowledge of optical materials, has used his expertise to extract the required substances from cellulose and process them into white pigment. The innovation here is not a new process but a new combination of process steps, and their control. Seprify intends to primarily supply the safe and non-hazardous white pigment they’ve developed for applications in direct contact with people.
Maturity
The pigments are currently being prepared for different applications as part of development projects carried out in close cooperation with customers – the first products containing Seprify white are due to be launched on the market in 2025. In January of that year, a pilot plant with a production capacity of one tonne of white pigment a year will go into operation at the Marly site in Fribourg. No specialised machinery is required, so the construction of larger plants can follow quickly: a commercial demonstration plant with a capacity of 1000 tonnes is planned for just over a year later. The cellulose components that are not processed into white pigment will be used to strengthen the circular economy – for example as a texturising agent for toothpastes.
‘We are initially focusing on products that people put on or in their bodies, such as food, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.’
- Lukas Schertel, CEO & co-founder of Seprify AG
This portrait is taken from the second edition of the cleantech start-up overview published in 2024. Discover the full publication here.
