BlueChem is a unique collaboration between government, industry and knowledge institutions with the common ambition to guarantee and strengthen the future of the economically important chemical sector in Flanders.

In 2020 BlueChem opened its doors on the climate-neutral business park Blue Gate Antwerp, in the heart of one of the largest chemical clusters in the world.

For this assignment, a call for tender was launched in compliance with public procurement legislation. Bopro acts as a project manager, from the start (design of the program requirements) up to completion of the project. Bopro also takes care of the financial plan, the feasibility studies and structures this real estate project and the related rental agreement.

Bopro operates in line with the actual needs of the end user. Together with experts and contractors, we aim to realise the optimal building within the proposed budget.

Since October 2019, Bopro is also entrusted with the BREEAM New Construction assessment. All buildings on Blue Gate Antwerp have to be build with respect of the BREEAM standard in order to reach the objectives in terms of flexibility, modularity and energy.

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Objective BlueChem

To help promising start-ups and ambitious growth companies from home and abroad to ensure that sustainable innovations for the chemistry of the future can grow on an industrial scale. That’s the objective of BlueChem, the first incubator in Belgium to focus specifically on innovation and entrepreneurship in sustainable chemistry, such as the valorisation of waste and by-products, process optimisation and the development of renewable chemicals and sustainable products.

Setup

The incubator offers a mix of fully equipped and freely configurable labs, individual offices and flexible workstations for start-ups, SMEs, large companies, research centres and knowledge institutions. CATALISTI, the spearhead cluster for chemistry and plastics, will also take an active role in BlueChem to detect, start up and supervise promising innovation projects.

Numbers

BlueChem is a project of approximately 11 million euros and can count on the support of the European and Flemish authorities. Europe is investing more than 3.4 million euros through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Flanders is contributing 868,397 euros via the Hermes Fund. The city of Antwerp is investing 4 million euros.