Building the foundation for transparency, circularity, and efficient data exchange in the chemical industry.
Chem-X is the key to a transparent and circular chemical industry. With Chem-X, we want to address the need for a seamless exchange of product information in the value chain across industries. Thereby, we want to enable compliance with different regulative requirements, support circular business models and increase competitiveness.
Within the chemical industry, we want to help companies creating a Digital Material Passport (DMP). A Digital Material Passport (DMP) captures information on chemicals which constitute a final product that is regulatory required to have a Digital Product Passport (DPP).
To lay the foundations for a chemistry DMP, we have been working on six guidelines in which we summarize our common understanding of methodological frameworks, metrics, terminology, and review existing implementations. The guidelines address key topics: business and material identity, verification, sustainability and circularity, and material declaration. The guidelines will be used alongside the information models as prerequisite to develop DMP models.
This approach enables us to progress rapidly toward efficient and effective solutions. It forms the foundation for the launch of the Digital Material Passport (DMP). The DMP system within the chemical industry will evolve through a continuous learning process – advancing in maturity as adoption grows – on its way to becoming a widely established standard. Our objective is clear: achieving broad implementation of the DMP across the chemical industry.
Thank You for Your Feedback.
We sincerely thank all participants who contributed feedback during the consultation phase. Your insights, perspectives, and comments have helped us refine the guidelines and ensure they reflect the needs of a diverse and interconnected industry.
Your contributions strengthen this pre competitive, publicly funded initiative – and help move the entire industry toward shared, open, and interoperable standards.
The consultation has now been completed, and the following six guidelines – tailored for the chemical industry – reflect the consolidated and finalized input received. While these guidelines are now published as the first full version, they will continue to evolve with further content added as the Digital Material Passport system matures.
Provides a results-based review and critical assessment of the Business Partner Data Management (BPDM) implementations in Catena-X, Cofinity-X, and Manufacturing-X. It examines how these systems manage identity and data modeling, evaluates their compliance with open standards (e.g., W3C, ISO, Gaia-X), and explores their potential for extensibility beyond the automotive domain. Special attention is given to interoperability challenges, governance models, and data sovereignty concerns that impact multi-sector adoption.
Outlines the method and architecture to define and structure a digital MaterialID for chemical products. A digital MaterialID targets to identify a chemical product and, unlike known material identifiers such as CAS-Number, INCI Name, EC-Number, UFI Number, etc., provides a link from the physical product to its digital representation and its product information made available as a digital material passport (DMP) or digital product passport (DPP).
Provides a review of existing dataspace projects regarding their verification components and serves as a foundation for developing a verification concept in Chem-X project. It highlights the importance of credential-based verification, public key infrastructure, and registry services within a decentralized framework, referencing standards such as eIDAS, W3C Verifiable Credentials, and active and ongoing dataspace projects like Catena-X.
Provides a methodological framework for assessing the environmental impacts of chemical products. The guideline covers the following metrics:
- Product carbon footprint (TfS PCF Guideline 3.0)
- Resource use fossil
- Acidification potential
- Water use (water scarcity)
- Ozone depletion potential
- Photochemical ozone creation potential
Defines harmonized metrics for measuring circularity in chemical products. The guideline covers:
- Bio/ Renewable/ Recycled/ Reuse content metrics definitions and formulas
- Chain of custody definitions and indicators
Provides clear information, showing how to structure chemical material and substance information. It explains how to handle substance declarations at different levels – from general product specifications to specific production batches and individual items.
Companies can utilize this framework to share required chemical information electronically throughout their supply chains while maintaining appropriate confidentiality. The guideline also illustrates how to incorporate Safety Data Sheet information when needed as an additional set of information between supply chain partners.
To continue our joint effort toward a transparent, interoperable, and circular chemical industry, we are hosting a follow up webinar on February 25th, 2026. This session focuses on how we have addressed the external feedback received during the recent consultation and how these inputs have helped refine the Digital Material Passport (DMP) guidelines.
This webinar builds on the previously published set of guidelines and provides clarity on what has changed, what has been strengthened, and how the Chem X initiative will continue to evolve based on collective insights from industry stakeholders.
February 25, 2026
The link to register will be published here soon.
You will learn in the webinar:
During the session, we will provide:
- An overview of the external feedback received
We will summarize the main themes, concerns, and suggestions raised during the consultation, highlighting recurring patterns across submissions from different stakeholders. - How the feedback was addressed.
We will present concrete updates made to the six guidelines, explain the rationale behind the adjustments, and clarify how the final versions now reflect industry wide consensus and expert contributions. - Updates on the technical framework of Chem X
We will share how the feedback influenced the architecture, infrastructure design, and interoperability approach of Chem X – including how these improvements support scalable and efficient DMP deployment. - How the updated documents are structured
We will explain the organization of the new guideline documents and show where additional information, clarifications, and expanded metrics have been incorporated.
We look forward to welcoming you at the event.