HAYAT KIMYA SANAYI ANONIM SIRKETI

Their core work

Hayat Kimya is a large Turkish chemicals and consumer goods manufacturer — producing detergents, personal care products, and household chemicals at industrial scale. In the H2020 context, they engage as an industrial end-user and potential off-taker for bio-based materials, bringing manufacturing capacity and market reach to consortia developing biowaste-derived products. Their participation in both a municipal solid waste biorefinery project (PERCAL) and an urban biowaste value chain project (WaysTUP!) suggests a strategic interest in sourcing sustainable, bio-based raw material inputs for their product lines. They are not a research actor — their value to EU consortia is market access and industrial validation.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their first H2020 project (PERCAL, 2017) addressed a broad challenge — extracting useful chemical building blocks from mixed municipal solid waste — with no sector-specific targeting evident from the keyword data. By 2019, their second project (WaysTUP!) sharpened the focus considerably, moving to urban biowaste streams specifically and to the development of full value chains for biobased products in city environments. The shift from generic MSW biorefinery chemistry toward urban circular economy systems reflects a narrowing toward practical, commercially viable bio-based supply chains.

Hayat Kimya is moving toward circular economy supply chains where urban biowaste becomes a feedstock for their industrial manufacturing operations, a direction that aligns with growing EU regulatory pressure on bio-based material sourcing.

How they like to work

Hayat Kimya has participated exclusively as a consortium partner, never as a coordinator, which is consistent with a large industrial company engaging in research projects for technology access rather than research leadership. Their two projects each involved large multi-partner consortia — typical of Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI) grants — giving them exposure to 39 different partners across 12 countries. This pattern suggests they are selective, joining only projects with direct commercial relevance to their manufacturing business.

Hayat Kimya has engaged with 39 unique consortium partners across 12 countries through just two large European research consortia. Their network is broad relative to their project count, a direct consequence of BBI-funded consortia that typically span 15–25 partners per project.

What sets them apart

As a major Turkish industrial chemicals manufacturer, Hayat Kimya brings something most EU-based partners cannot: large-scale manufacturing capacity and access to Turkish and wider MENA consumer markets for bio-based products. Their non-EU status also adds geographic diversity to consortia, which some BBI and Horizon calls favour. For a consortium developing a biobased product that needs industrial-scale testing or a ready commercial off-taker, Hayat Kimya offers a rare combination of chemistry expertise and market reach outside the EU core.

Highlights from their portfolio

• WaysTUP!
  Their only funded project (EUR 36,716), focused on building full urban biowaste value chains in city contexts — the most applied and commercially relevant project in their portfolio.
• PERCAL
  Their first H2020 involvement, addressing chemical building blocks from MSW biorefinery — establishing their early interest in waste-derived raw materials for chemical manufacturing.