Ahead of this October's much anticipated Pigment and Colour Science Forum, we spoke to Jeremie to get his insights into what he thinks will be the biggest challenge for the pigments sector in the coming 5 years, what he sees as the most interesting innovations in the market right now, and to get a sneak peek of his presentation.

You're going to be presenting about new biobased building blocks for the product of sustainable high-performance pigments, can you give a sneak peek of what people will hear about?

Delegates will hear about the interest to combine biotechnology and organic chemistry to produce biobased high-performance pigments and chemical intermediates. They will see different potential applications for this hybrid technology and they will hear about a case study on indigo production.

What do you think will be the biggest challenge for the pigments sector in the coming 5 years?

I cannot predict the future, but what I see today is structural price increases and risk of shortages due to price energy rises, environmental regulation and global logistics tensions. Keeping on delivering the same colour performance at a similar price with strong decrease in CO2 emissions will be very challenging for fossil-based solutions.

What is your biggest driver as a business today?

Final consumers asking for sustainability and family-owned businesses committing to reduce their environmental footprint.

What do you see as some of the most interesting innovations in the market right now?

Sustainable pigments enabled by new technologies such as flow/photo chemistry and biobased chemical intermediates.

What are you most looking forward to at Pigment and Colour Science 2022?

At the Forum, we look forward to sharing our vision for the future of the colour industry with key industry players, challenge this vision through discussions and meet prospects interested in sustainable and high-performance colours.