Interview with Dr. Daniel Stewart, Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer at Viridi
Dr. Daniel Stewart
Viridi
Viridi emerged from research at the University of Southampton. Could you explain how the company was founded and what core challenge you set out to solve for the chemical and home/personal care industries?
Viridi was founded as a spin-out from the University of Southampton by Professor Robert Raja and me. During my PhD, I became increasingly focused on ways to reimagine carbon sourcing not from fossil or land-intensive materials, but from carbon streams that already exist within the industry. We saw an opportunity to address a long-standing structural issue in the chemical sector: its dependence on volatile, emissions-heavy raw materials from long and complex supply chains that sit at the heart of products used in homecare, personal care, coatings and many other industries.
From the beginning, our goal was to create a practical pathway toward more sustainable and circular manufacturing, one that could be adopted at scale without requiring companies to undertake costly plant rebuilds or invest in brand new infrastructure. The technology we developed centres on a solid catalyst that can convert captured CO2 into valuable chemical ingredients. What began as an academic concept quickly evolved into a commercially relevant platform with the potential to support formulators and ingredient producers looking for lower-impact, more localised carbon sources.
Viridi recently launched Vireya™, the first CO2-derived anionic surfactant. What key performance and sustainability advantages does this CO2-derived surfactant offer compared to conventional alternatives?
Let’s talk about performance first. In formulation testing, one of the most striking advantages we’ve seen is its exceptional mildness profile. Independent data and partner feedback show that Vireya delivers up to a tenfold improvement in skin mildness compared to conventional benchmarks. This is particularly relevant for personal care, where irritation reduction and skin comfort claims continue to be a major priority.
Another area where Vireya performs strongly is environmental footprint. Because it is derived from captured CO2, its product carbon footprint is significantly lower, with reductions of up to 70% compared to traditional surfactants. This gives formulators an opportunity to make immediate, measurable impacts on Scope 3 emissions, which is increasingly important for brand reporting and regulatory alignment.
The best thing is that Vireya is just one example. We are applying the same innovation goals of performance, sustainability and cost across multiple surfactant classes used in a wide range of both consumer and industrial applications, and our technology has application in broader industries too, including the polyurethane industry, coatings, adhesives and several others.
Your solid-catalyst platform is described as a drop-in technology. How does the process integrate into existing manufacturing systems, and what practical benefits does this bring for ingredient producers?
Our system is designed to operate under standard industrial conditions and fit directly into existing production lines with only minimal modifications. This is important because one of the biggest barriers to the adoption of new technologies is the expectation of major CAPEX and also process redesign. Our aim has always been to remove that barrier entirely.
For manufacturers, this brings several advantages. First, it ensures the economics of the adoption of this technology are sound, without major CAPEX requirement. The ability to use existing infrastructure also enables faster scaling. Additionally, our technology works at lower temperatures than incumbent catalysts and can even simplify and reduce the number of process steps, actually improving production economics. And finally, our catalyst is easily removable from the product, reusable and recyclable, further improving both sustainability and economics.
Many brands are seeking lower-carbon, lower-land-use alternatives to traditional feedstocks. How can CO2 derived ingredients contribute to reducing Scope 3 emissions and building more resilient supply chains?
Traditional feedstocks carry embedded emissions, sometimes land-use impacts, and imply for manufacturers the exposure to increasingly volatile global supply chains. CO2-derived ingredients offer a fundamentally different pathway.
By using captured CO2 as a raw material, we significantly reduce the reliance on fossil-based raw materials and can, depending on the use case, eliminate the use of land-based feedstocks. The result is a measurable reduction in the product carbon footprint of finished materials, which flows directly into the Scope 3 calculations of ingredient buyers, including consumer brand owners. For companies with additional sustainability targets related to land-use materials, this represents a unique method of reaching those targets.
There’s also a supply-chain resilience dimension. CO2 streams are predictable, abundant, and localised, making them less susceptible to commodity price swings, climate-related disruptions, or geopolitical volatility. For manufacturers, shifting even a portion of ingredient portfolios to captured-carbon sources can diversify risk and improve long-term planning.
How does Viridi ensure that CO2-derived ingredients meet the safety and quality expectations of formulators and end users?
From a safety perspective, there are well-defined legal frameworks governing the registration of chemical substances across different regions and applications. We follow these regulatory processes rigorously to ensure that our ingredients can be introduced to the market in full compliance.
On quality, we work closely with the entire value chain - from our direct customers to downstream brand owners and relevant industry bodies. These engagements give us a detailed understanding of performance requirements across different applications. This feedback is built directly into our development process, ensuring that our CO2-derived ingredients deliver the safety, reliability, and functionality that formulators and end users expect.
