INWED 2025: Rebuilding Industry with Waste

KRISZTINA Kovacs-Schreiner is a self-confessed “geeky, technical person”. She gets excited by huge industrial sites, drawn in by the steam and distinctive smells. And like so many chemical engineers, what really makes her tick is knowing that the processes driving such gargantuan plants started as a sketch in a notebook – “from kitchen table to prototype”, as she describes it. But as well as scaleup, she’s driven by a mission to kickstart an ethical way of manufacturing – one based on the reuse of the vast amounts of biomass we waste each year.

Krisztina’s love for science and engineering started as a child growing up in Hungary in the 1980s. “I grew up on David Attenborough films and I really wanted to travel the world and understand how everything interlinks.”

She’s followed through on both ambitions. After moving to the UK to study for a bachelor’s degree in biochemical engineering at University College London in 2009, she now serves as the CEO of biomaterials startup Lixea, leading the scaleup of a technology invented in London, trialled in Sweden, and currently being commercialised in Slovakia.

Krisztina joined Lixea as commercial lead in 2020, three years after a group led by Jason Hallett at Imperial College London formed a spinout based on a new process to break woody biomass down into its constituent cellulose and lignin along with other smaller molecules. 

Krisztina discovered novel material development when working for a bioplastics company. “That’s when I fell in love with biomass, lignin and cellulose and their potential,” she says. “I really fell in love with…using natural ingredients and creating these wonderful new materials where things are closer to a natural way of living.”

Lixea’s technology relies on a patented process called Dendronic, which uses “ionic liquids” – solvents comprised entirely of ions – to break down woody biomass from agricultural, forestry, construction and energy crop waste. Krisztina hopes that Lixea’s cellulose and lignin can be used as “building block materials” in a wide range of applications, “from textiles all the way to packaging”.

Most people haven’t heard of ionic liquids – “quirky solvents”, Krisztina calls them, which are sometimes also called “liquid salts”. She hadn’t heard of them either before she met the group researching them at Imperial but now finds herself totally immersed in their “weird and wonderful world”.

Unlike many conventional solvents used to break down woody biomass, ionic liquids are safe to handle and easily recyclable. What’s more, Lixea boasts that the Dendronic approach can use a wide range of mixed woody feedstocks, and that it can convert 80% of the lignocellulosic biomass into sulfur-free lignin and unique cellulose fibres.

According to the Centre for European Policy Studies, the EU generated almost 50m t of waste wood in 2020. Lixea’s goal is to transform this vast amount of waste into biobased alternatives to the fossil-based components found in everyday materials, such as common plastics.

Krisztina thinks it is a “sin” that so much organic material is wasted every year. “A lot of things that we are using oil-based building blocks in can be replaced by biobased building blocks,” she says. Her vision is a world where there is no need for ethical consumerism. “I think everything should be designed using biobased material, so the customers don’t have to think about it and make choices. It should be a given.”

Breaking the pattern

Speaking just a couple of days before International Women in Engineering Day (INWED), Krisztina appeared reluctant to talk about the principal of “women in engineering”. Asked whether she would like to “break down barriers” for young girls wanting to go into engineering and technical roles, or how engineering environments could be “more accessible for women”, she diverted to her core belief that there should be more engineers full-stop, irrespective of gender. “There’s no such thing as a male engineer”, she says, so why attach a gender label only when discussing female engineers?”

It’s easy to see how statements on equity like this could be exploited by hiring managers as an excuse for having few-to-no women on the payroll – a throwaway “We don’t discriminate against women; we just hire whoever best fits the role” response. In Lixea’s case, where at times women have dominated staff numbers, it appears to be a genuine value. “At one point we had more female team members than male, and I thought, ‘oh my god, we’re breaking the pattern!’” Krisztina says. “We work with a lot of talented people, and they happen to be women – which is fantastic.”

Krisztina is eager to raise awareness that a career in engineering can lead to a wide range of opportunities for everyone – regardless of gender – and that “it’s not just about hard hats”. In particular, she wants more engineers to be involved in public policy, saying they are best placed to “not make decisions based on emotions but more on the line of hardcore data”.

She does, nonetheless, hold a strong belief that there needs to be a greater and more influential role for women across society – not just for equity and inclusivity purposes, but to widen the talent pool. “This is about more than mere box ticking,” she says. “Providing the opportunity to all to test themselves and contribute to the greater good is one of the most rewarding aspects of a professional’s life.”

Money tree

Lixea is now at one of the most notoriously difficult stages of business development for a tech startup – convincing investors who want quick returns that parting with their cash will eventually prove fruitful. “To find the first few investors who believe in the tech, who believe in the impact, who are supporting us long-term, is very challenging,” she admits. 

Lixea has attracted grants from the EU, which Krisztina says has been a “lifesaver”, including a 2019 award of €4.3m (US$4.9m) to build the pilot plant in Sweden, followed by €21.5m in 2023 to build the commercial demonstration plant in Slovakia, which is expected to start operating in mid-2028. “Clearly, the EU thinks we are wonderful,” she says wryly.

The Slovakia plant is set to process 25,000 t/y of waste woody biomass. Lixea calculates that the plant will save 526,360 t/y of CO2e when compared to manufacturing processes for packaging and speciality chemicals that use oil-based building blocks, amounting to a 79% reduction.

For Krisztina, the role of engineers goes far beyond technical innovation, though – they are essential to building a fairer, more sustainable future. “Much has been achieved by previous generations to make us freer, healthier and more prosperous,” she says. “Our task is to spread these values, and the various disciplines of engineering play a huge and often underestimated role in creating a wealthier, cleaner and more equitable world.”