On January 10, 2018, AkzoNobel, a member of the Biobased and Renewable Products Advocacy Group (BRAG^®), announced the challenges for its latest Imagine Chemistry program.  AkzoNobel initiated the Imagine Chemistry program in 2017 to startup and scale-up firms and researchers for an opportunity to solve real industry challenges and create sustainable business opportunities in chemistry.  Challenge winners receive joint development agreements with AkzoNobel to help bring their ideas to market.  During the 2018 program, AkzoNobel is soliciting solutions to the following challenges;

• Development of a surfactant platform that is fully sustainable, specifically biobased, biodegradable, and zero footprint, and suitable for many applications;
• Organic-free wastewater treatment solutions;
• Smart technology to make chemical plants more intelligent, autonomous, and resource efficient;
• Production of chlorate using a more sustainable, energy efficient method that does not use hexavalent chromium;
• Technologies to increase the efficiency of the production of dry powder products; and
• Small particle technology to help drive performance and sustainability improvements.​ 

Participants can submit ideas and solutions through the online challenge platform.  Finalists will be invited to an intensive three-day event in June at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, where they will work with experts in finance and research to further develop their ideas.