The Independent Commodity Intelligence Services (ICIS) search for the very best in innovation in the chemical industry. The ICIS Innovation Awards are intended to recognize and reward companies paving the way in product, process, and digital innovations that demonstrate a commitment to sustainability. The awards were open to any company in the chemical industry that successfully executed innovative projects that solve problems and provide solutions for companies, their customers, and society, as well as benefiting the environment and progressing sustainability. ICIS will recognize the 2023 winners on October 17, 2023. The 2023 winners include:

Best Digital Innovation from a Large Company

• Joint Winners:
  • Evonik Operations GmbH: COATINO^® Defect Detection -- Quantifying coating defects by using advanced image recognition methods; and
  • Dow: Dow^™ Paint Vision: Shaping the modern digital lab for paint formulation.
• Finalists:
  • Sewage and recycled water networks, Dubai municipality: Development of Fog Watch -- A digital platform to manage fat, oil, and grease waste;
  • Fatima Fertilizer Company: Sarsabz Pakistan (Fatima Fertilizers Farmer Application); and
  • Fatima Fertilizer Company: Sarsabz Asaan (Fatima Fertilizers Dealers Application).

Best Process Innovation from a Large Company

• Winner:
  • UPM Biochemicals, part of UPM -- The Biofore Company: UPM Biochemicals: Future beyond fossils.
• Finalists:
  • Nouri Petrochemical Company, PGPIC: Diagnosis, optimization, and compromising the bottlenecks of the benzene extraction process by designing an innovative tower’s internal;
  • Wanhua Chemical Group Co., Ltd.: Methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) byproduct amine-containing waste brine recycling technology;
  • Wanhua Chemical Group Co., Ltd.: Automatic continuous formaldehyde-free adhesive spray plywood panel process;
  • PPG: PPG Zero Discharge Project; and
  • Indorama Ventures: Optimization of cycle reaction propoxylation process time.

Best Product Innovation from a Large Company

• Winner:
  • Arkema: Recycling of monomaterial shoe.
• Finalists:
  • Dow: DEXCARE^™ CD-1 Polymer: Boost your shampoo’s conditioning effectiveness with Dow’s renewable, bioderived deposition aid;
  • Dow Chemical: EcoSense^™ GL-60 HA/HL Surfactants: Novel sustainable biosurfactants for personal care rinse-off and leave-on applications;
  • Celanese International Corp: Achieve even lower carbon footprint with Santoprene^® ECO-R Series thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPV) products; and
  • Corteva Agriscience: A modern nematicide with soil health benefits: Salibro^™ nematicide with Reklemel^™ Active from Corteva Agriscience.

Best Process Innovation from Small and Medium Enterprises (SME)

• Winner:
  • Botanical Solution Inc: Growing and extracting from plants in the lab to produce new fungicides for agriculture and QS-21 vaccine adjuvants for human health.
• Finalists:
  • LanzaTech: Pollution to products;
  • AmSty: Innovative PolyRenew^® circularity solution for accelerating plastics recycling;
  • Origin Materials: Origin materials; and
  • GDB Paint & Coatings: Making every drop count: GDB’s commitment toward a net-zero waste paint industry.

Best Product Innovation from an SME

• Winner:
  • Viridis Chemical Company: Commercial scale biobased ethyl acetate with lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
• Finalists:
  • ECO GLAS Environmental Limited: Septic Tank Smart Box;
  • Locus Ingredients: Leading the charge: Optimizing sophorolipids for real-world applications;
  • LanzaTech: CarbonSmart ethylene from carbon dioxide (CO₂); and
  • Oberon Fuels: Decarbonizing the global liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) industry, with new, negative-carbon intensity (CI) ingredient.