The chemical industry is still highly dependent on fossil fuels and this, ultimately, entails economic, ecological, and political risks. The use of renewable resources has emerged as a priority as the best answer to questions of sustainability. The development of new bio-sourced materials is a major challenge for the French chemical industry and represents a significant potential market.
Between 2007 and 2018, the two ACTIA Joint Technological Units, POLYGREEN and POLYGREEN2INDUSTRY, illustrated their capacity for innovation in the field of bio-sourced polymers – both from a scientific and an industrial standpoint – by filing patents that have generated interest from manufacturers.

The new ACTIA Joint Technological Unit, AGROCHEM, will pursue this approach. 
This Joint Technological Unit, based in Bordeaux, was launched in January 2019 for a duration of five years.

In line with the expectations of Iterg customers all along the value chain (growers, food processing companies, and users of fats), at national and international level, the Joint Technological Unit's partners intend to pursue their efforts to develop innovative and effective bio-sourced fat-based products with an objective of economic, societal, and environmental competitiveness.

The Joint Technological Unit's ambition is to support the emergence and establishment of two French lipid-sourcing industries devoted to the food, chemicals, and materials industries: high erucic rapeseed oil from the oilseed industry and oils that are high in oleic fatty acids from the biotechnology industry.

In order to do this, the partners are focusing on high-potential markets for products with high volume potential and production capacity, which can compete with petrochemical products.