The southern Dutch province of Brabant is becoming the home of the Silicon Valley of plant-based chemistry.
André Oerlemans in ChangeInc, 04 december 2025
Rodenburg has been producing bioplastics from potato starch for 25 years, for applications including Mars, festivals, and mussel beds. With its subsidiary Tony Starch, it will also use this technology to produce chemicals for hundreds of products that currently use oil, from sanitary napkins to bandages. The company also has plans to build a large campus for startups and other companies in the green, biobased chemistry sector.
Rodenburg has been making bioplastic from potato starch for 25 years, for applications including Mars, festivals, and mussel beds. With its subsidiary Tony Starch, it will also use it to produce chemicals for hundreds of products that currently use oil, from sanitary napkins to bandages. The company also has plans to build a large campus for startups and other companies in the green, biobased chemical industry.
"I dare say this is the game changer for phasing out fossil fuels in the chemical industry. This is a gigantic market with over a million tons of product per year," says CEO Thijs Rodenburg of the eponymous family business from Oosterhout, Brabant. He's referring to DAS (dialdehyde starch), a molecule derived from starch that has been researched for eighty years but has never been commercially produced. Rodenburg, with its subsidiary Tony Starch, has developed a patented production technology to produce DAS on a large scale. "More than four hundred applications have already been developed for this," says the CEO.
DAS can be an alternative to all kinds of oil-based chemicals and raw materials that can be polluting or hazardous and are used in various personal care, pharmaceutical, or other chemical products. From raw materials for leather to paint, from sanitary napkins and diapers to tissues for blowing your nose, from bandages to wet wipes. It can also be used for seed coatings or fertilizers.
Pilot plant and demonstration plant
DAS is recyclable and biodegradable and is made from starch and green energy. This starch comes from potatoes, just like the bioplastics Rodenburg makes, but can also be made from tapioca, pea, wheat, or corn waste. The English word for starch is starch, hence the company name Tony Starch. "Many parties have experimented with DAS at the lab scale and made products from it. But no one has yet succeeded in producing it on a large, commercial scale," says Rodenburg.
A key aspect of DAS is that it can equal the price of the fossil-based alternative. Consumers are no longer willing to pay for greener products, according to the company's experience. In January, Tony Starch will scale up the capacity of its pilot plant at its Oosterhout site to 50 kilograms of DAS per day. The company already has customers eager for this. At the same time, Rodenburg is seeking funding of €50 to €60 million for the demonstration plant, which is expected to produce 10 tons per day in 2027. Ultimately, a commercial plant is expected to produce 200 tons daily after 2030, approximately 60,000 tons per year. Customers requiring larger quantities can also produce DAS under license.
Side Stream Innovation Valley
Rodenburg is currently expanding significantly at its site. New silos and facilities are being built to process and store starch and other products. In addition to the new campus for Tony Starch, the company plans to build a larger campus on a meadow next to the forest, dedicated entirely to companies in the green, plant-based chemical industry.
The working name for this is Side Stream Innovation Valley (SSIV). The campus is comparable to the Brighlands Chemelot Campus for chemical innovation in the Dutch province of Limburg or the Brainport Industries Campus (BIC) for high-tech manufacturing in the southern Dutch city of Eindhoven. The Oosterhout campus will have 65,000 square meters of production halls and 7,000 square meters of laboratories, offices, and other spaces.
Emulating Eindhoven's success
It aims to become a Silicon Valley for biobased chemistry. "We want to create a cluster of startups and scale-ups here, complementary to each other, that process plant-based raw materials into new materials. We see synergy benefits if we all have a single location," Rodenburg explains. "The BIC is creating a huge success in Eindhoven. We want to replicate that here with plant-based solutions."
Rodenburg already has contacts with universities of applied sciences, research universities, and the Wageningen University & Research Centre (WUR) in Wageningen. Companies are also applying for a site almost daily. "We're inundated with companies wanting to be here, both from the Netherlands and abroad," says Rodenburg. "There's plenty of demand. There's just a shortage of space in this region."
The Oosterhout municipal council has already approved the plan and amended the zoning plan. Local environmental organizations have objected to this. The State Council of the Netherlands will have to rule on it next year.