In an exclusive conversation ahead of SynBioBeta 2026 on May 4-7th in San Jose, Harshal Chokhawala, PhD, CEO of ZymoChem, confirmed what hygiene manufacturers have been waiting a decade to hear. The company's bio-based superabsorbent polymer BAYSE has cleared the performance bar that kept every previous bio-based alternative out of commercial diaper lines, and it is ready for adoption today.
BAYSE is a microplastic-free, bio-based and biodegradable superabsorbent polymer (Bio-SAP) that ships as a drop-in replacement for the petroleum-derived polyacrylate granules found inside virtually every diaper, period pad, and incontinence product on the market. Independent third-party testing1,2 validated performance on absorption under pressure, free swell capacity, centrifuge retention capacity, and absorption speed across all relevant fluid types. Against a standard petroleum-based SAP, BAYSE absorbed saline twice as fast and locked away the most viscous artificial menstrual fluid 3.6 times faster. The best-performing diaper construct built on an industrial manufacturing line retained 400 grams of saline against a 350-gram engineering target, with a rewet value of just 0.68 grams under pressure.
Consumer data followed. In a nationwide blind in-home trial1 conducted in Q1 2026 with parents of infants in size 4 diapers, 52% preferred the BAYSE-powered diaper over the brand they normally use. When told the diaper was bio-based and biodegradable, overall appeal jumped to 92% and as did consumers’ purchase interest. Leakage incidence across all diapers tested came in at an estimated 3.2–4.8%, at the low end of the historical range for conventional products3.
The gap BAYSE closes is enormous. The global hygiene industry consumes more than 3 million metric tons of SAP annually, making the material the third-largest contributor to U.S. landfill waste behind food and paper. Previous bio-based SAPs delivered only 60-70% of the absorption metrics set by petroleum incumbents, leaving manufacturers without a credible sustainable option.
"The hygiene industry has been waiting for a bio-based SAP that doesn't make compromises," Chokhawala says. "These results confirm that sustainability and performance are no longer in tension."
Behind BAYSE is ZymoChem's proprietary Carbon Conserving (C2) microbial platform, a product of more than ten years of chemistry and strain engineering. C2 microbes convert renewable feedstocks into high-value chemicals while producing near-zero CO2 emissions during fermentation, delivering yields up to 50% greater than conventional biomanufacturing. That yield advantage closes the cost gap with petroleum incumbents, which is what makes BAYSE commercially viable rather than a premium niche product.
Joe Giallanella, COO at ZymoChem, who has previously led large global brands at Seventh Generation and Heinz, puts a finer point on the company's approach and the net-zero vocabulary dominant across the chemicals industry.
"Net Zero is a financial instrument. Real-Zero is an engineering commitment. When you redesign chemistry from the ground up, as we have done by replacing petro-carbons with bio-based alternatives that match the same performance, you don't need offsets. That's because there's no carbon debt to settle."
BAYSE is only the first product from ZymoChem, with a number of chemicals in the pipeline. For instance, ZymoChem's work on bio-adipic acid, the chemical precursor to nylon 6,6, earned the company Startup of the Year recognition from the International Textile Manufacturers Federation in 2025, alongside a partnership with lululemon to integrate bio-nylon into high-performance apparel at scale. A 24-month collaboration with the Agile BioFoundry, backed by two hundred fifty thousand dollars in DOE funding routed through Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, is applying proteomics and machine learning to optimize the microbial host for bio-adipic acid production. The global nylon market, inclusive of nylon 6,6, is valued at over $30 billion dollars annually.
The breadth of that portfolio is not accidental. "The versatility and agility you witness from the outside is actually deliberately designed architecture from the inside," Chokhawala explains. "The C2 platform is the result of more than ten years of deep chemistry expertise, iterative development, and a patent portfolio covering broad ground. The range isn't surprising to us. Maintaining a dynamic toolkit was always the point."
ZymoChem arrives at SynBioBeta 2026 not as a startup still proving its concept, but as a company with validated consumer performance data, commercial partnerships, institutional recognition, and a platform built to scale across every materials category where fossil inputs currently hold the default position.
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