BIOCHEMIZE SL

Their core work

BIOCHEMIZE SL is a Barcelona-based biotech SME that designs and engineers enzyme systems for industrial applications. Their core capability is applied biocatalysis: they develop, engineer, and scale up enzyme-based processes to produce pharmaceuticals, bulk chemicals, and functional food or feed ingredients. They have demonstrated expertise in running multi-step cascade reactions using engineered lyases, aldolases, and halohydrin dehalogenases at microreactor and technical scale. More recently, they have applied biotransformation expertise to agricultural side streams — converting olive leaf biomass into preservatives, health ingredients, and feed additives within circular biorefinery frameworks.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first H2020 project (CARBAZYMES, 2015-2019), BCZ was focused squarely on precision enzyme engineering: designing panels of C-C bond forming enzymes, thermostabilizing them, and running cascade reactions in microreactors to produce pharmaceutical APIs and commodity bulk chemicals. By their second project (OLEAF4VALUE, 2021-2024), the enzyme and biotransformation competence remained, but the application domain shifted decisively toward agri-food and circular bioeconomy — olive leaf biomass, side stream valorisation, food preservatives, and feed additives replaced APIs and bulk chemicals in their vocabulary. The transition from an RIA (research) to an IA (innovation/market-facing) funding scheme mirrors this shift from fundamental biocatalysis toward commercially deployable biorefinery outputs.

BCZ is moving from pharma/chemicals biocatalysis toward food, feed, and bioeconomy applications — making them an increasingly relevant partner for agri-food companies, ingredient producers, and circular economy projects needing biotransformation expertise.

How they like to work

BCZ has participated exclusively as a consortium partner across both projects, never taking a coordinator role — a pattern typical of specialist SMEs that contribute a defined technical capability rather than drive project management. Their two projects involved large, multi-country consortia (30 unique partners across 10 countries), suggesting they are comfortable operating within complex collaborative structures. This positions them as a reliable specialist node rather than a project anchor, which means prospective partners should expect focused, deliverable-driven engagement rather than project leadership.

BCZ has built a network of 30 unique consortium partners spanning 10 countries through just two projects, indicating dense collaboration per project rather than shallow multi-project breadth. Their network is European in scope, concentrated in the biotech and agri-food research communities given their project domains.

What sets them apart

BCZ occupies a rare niche as an SME that bridges fundamental enzyme science and industrial-scale bioprocess deployment — a capability gap that many academic-heavy consortia need filled but struggle to source from universities alone. Their demonstrated progression from enzyme platform development (CARBAZYMES) to applied biorefinery processing (OLEAF4VALUE) shows they can take biotransformation know-how across the full TRL ladder. For food, feed, or circular bioeconomy projects needing an industrial enzyme and biotransformation partner with hands-on scale-up experience, BCZ is a credible and focused choice.

Highlights from their portfolio

• CARBAZYMES
  BCZ's largest project by funding (EUR 207,987) and their foundational work — building an industrial C-C bond forming enzyme platform capable of producing pharmaceutical APIs and bulk chemicals via cascade reactions in microreactors.
• OLEAF4VALUE
  An Innovation Action targeting real market outputs from olive leaf biorefinery, this project marks BCZ's strategic pivot into agri-food and circular bioeconomy, and introduced nanotechnology and molecularly imprinted materials into their technical toolkit.