NoPalm Ingredients is brewing a new path forward, one that spares forests, slashes emissions, and gives food by-products a second life.
Palm oil has been used for thousands of years, with traces first discovered in an Egyptian tomb dating back to 3,000 BCE. Its popularity grew significantly during the Industrial Revolution, when European demand surged and palm oil became a key ingredient in candles and soaps. Today, this versatile fat is found in around 60% of all packaged products, from chocolate bars and margarine to soap and shampoo. Global demand continues to rise by about 4% each year, and by 2030, an additional 22 million tons will be needed to meet consumption.
That growth comes at a cost. Meeting future demand would require clearing rainforests 1.5 times the size of Ireland, fueling deforestation, biodiversity loss, and greenhouse gas emissions, especially in Southeast Asia, where most palm plantations are concentrated.
Lars Langhout saw an opportunity to change that. A former consultant, he stumbled across a research paper in 2021 titled “Microorganism Makes Mayonnaise.” The article explored how microbial oil —a fat produced by fermenting yeast— could be used as a sustainable alternative in food and beauty products.
“It was an innovative concept that ignited a shared vision,” says Langhout. “Fermentation could offer a more sustainable way to develop widely used ingredients, like palm oil.”
Langhout reached out to the article’s author, Professor Jeroen Hugenholtz. Within two conversations, they had agreed to start NoPalm Ingredients, a company born with a clear mission: to create a green parallel oil and fat industry by producing palm oil without palm trees.
Palm oil, without plantations
NoPalm Ingredients doesn’t farm crops. Instead, it brews oil. The startup’s process transforms agri-food side streams, such as potato peels or whey permeate, into fermentable sugars. A proprietary non-GMO yeast then consumes these sugars and stores oil inside its cells, similar to how some microbes store fat for energy.
“After fermentation, we extract pure oils and fats from the yeast cells, leaving behind spent biomass,” Langhout explains. “The oils and fats produced inside the yeast cells can be tailored to different functionalities based on production settings, making them suitable for various applications in food, cosmetics, and personal care products. The remaining spent biomass is reintegrated into the value chain to maximize resource efficiency.”
Compared to palm oil, the impact is staggering. According to a Life Cycle Assessment by an independent third party, NoPalm’s microbial oil has a 90% lower carbon footprint and uses 99% less land.
“At commercial scale, each of our factories could save around 60 to 90 million kilograms of CO₂ per year,” says Langhout. “That’s comparable to the annual footprint of up to 40,000 EU citizens, and could protect up to 2,630 hectares of rainforest.”
Scaling this impact requires strong partnerships and reliable feedstock. So, the company has recently partnered with Milcobel, Belgium’s leading dairy cooperative, to supply whey permeate to its first-of-a-kind demo factory in Ede, set to open in 2026. The collaboration also includes a co-located commercial facility at Milcobel’s Langemark site, planned for 2028, which will benefit from direct, on-site feedstock integration.
Building a new industry from by-products
One of the most innovative aspects of NoPalm’s approach is its feedstock: the company uses underutilized side streams instead of pure sugars or virgin crops. This not only reduces cost, but also helps tackle by-products from the food industry.
“We make sure underutilized side streams are valorized higher in the value chain,” Langhout explains. “By using side streams, we are solving one of society’s other problems: food by-products.”
This approach also gives NoPalm Ingredients a resilience edge. Fermentation is a scalable, decentralized process that can be replicated anywhere side streams and industrial partners exist.
“We see NoPalm Ingredients operating multiple co-located factories across different regions,” says Langhout. “Our ambition is to build nothing less than a parallel industry to today’s oils and fats industry.”
And that new industry is already taking shape. NoPalm Ingredients has developed two product lines under the brand REVÓLEO™:
- REVÓLEO™ Soft is a drop-in replacement for fats used in food products like confectionery, dairy, and baked goods.
- REVÓLEO™ Silk offers a high-performance emollient for cosmetics and personal care, delivering a unique sensory profile and a luxurious skin feel that conventional fats cannot easily provide.
Both product lines aim to help brands build resilience in a market where supply chain disruptions and price volatility are becoming more frequent.
Scaling up
Until now, NoPalm’s process has been spread across multiple contract manufacturers across Europe — a necessary but inefficient setup. However, that’s about to change. The company has partnered with NIZO to build a new facility that will bring the entire process under one roof for the first time.
“The factory at NIZO will enable us to run our full process under one roof. By taking the entire process into our own hands, we maintain maximum control over every step: from raw material to end product. This guarantees consistent quality, high standards, and security of supply. The factory will also allow us to scale new process steps or feedstocks much more quickly,” explains Langhout.
Once operational, the demo factory will produce 1,200 tons of oil per year. The commercial factory with Milcobel will scale that to over 6,000 tons, once scaled and after optimization of the technology, price parity with sustainably sourced palm oil will be reached.
“By integrating the full process under one roof, using upcycled side streams, and co-locating with suppliers, we can offer stable, competitive pricing,” Langhout says.
Major players are already taking notice. Through collaborations with companies like Unilever and Colgate-Palmolive, NoPalm Ingredients is not only testing and refining REVÓLEO™, but also laying the groundwork for long-term commercial adoption.
“Their involvement provides three critical advantages,” says Langhout. “Credibility and validation, demonstrating that our solution meets the standards of the world’s most demanding food and beauty companies; de-risking scale-up, by validating performance and supply chain readiness; and providing a pathway to scale, with each partner bringing global reach and purchasing power.”
A shift in the system
With new legislation like the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) coming into force, more companies will be required to ensure their supply chains are deforestation-free, or face penalties. For many, microbial oils may offer a welcome solution.
“We can offer an advantage by having a fully transparent supply chain without the use of tropical resources,” says Langhout. “This means that customers save time and cost by avoiding EUDR documentation when implementing REVÓLEO™ as a drop-in.”
It’s not just about meeting regulations. It’s about rewriting the future of fats and oils altogether.
“Fermentation-based oils like REVÓLEO™ provide the performance and versatility of palm oil, but with a fraction of the environmental footprint and far greater supply resilience,” Langhout concludes. “By carving out the growth curve of palm oil demand, microbial oils give the world a realistic pathway to meet rising needs without compromising climate, ecosystems, or communities.”
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Scarlett Buckley is a London-based freelance sustainability writer with an MSc in Creative Arts & Mental Health.
Published Oct 23, 2025 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST