EU funds biotech indigo project
A Horizon Europe project has been launched to develop a biotech indigo. Selected in 2025, Greendigo has been proposed by a consortium that brings together two universities, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia and Aalto University, along with Danish biotech start-up NordicBlue and Dutch innovation consultancy Bee Granted. Together they intend to develop an industrial scale, fully enzymatic, biobased pigment to replace petrochemical indigo.
The project members believe they have identified a ‘breakthrough’ bio-based precursor that, when paired with a specific enzyme, generates colour directly on the fibre. This technical upgrade, they said, eliminates the need for sodium hydrosulfite, a toxic reducing agent often used denim production.
With some 3 billion pairs of jeans made annually, the Greendigo project aims to offer a safer alternative by replacing conventional indigo with this water-soluble precursor, which can be adsorbed onto cotton fibres under mild aqueous conditions. A specific enzyme will then catalyse its in-situ conversion to indigo directly on the fabric, eliminating the need for harmful reductants and offering a cleaner solution for the denim industry.
The five-year project aligns with the European Commission’s Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework and will integrate a life cycle analysis, ecotoxicity testing and sustainability modelling, benchmarked against current practices.
