The market for a surface coating begins with an ordinary question: what must it keep from sticking? For a cookware manufacturer, the answer might be an egg. For a bottling line, it might be the friction that slows production. Increasingly, another question follows. What chemicals will that surface leave behind?
Nanize, a materials technology company based in Narvik, Norway, is building its commercial proposition around that second question. Its PFAS-free polysilazane coatings target manufacturers seeking release performance and durable protection without fluorinated chemistry. A recent company recruitment notice identifies cookware and bakeware, release liners, technical fabrics, membranes and packaging among its current commercial priorities.
That widening focus coincides with a tangible change in the market. Since 12 August 2026, food-contact packaging containing PFAS above specified limits can no longer be placed on the European Union market. For suppliers serving food businesses, the transition has become a product-development deadline.
Nanize’s opportunity is to make that transition attractive on manufacturing grounds as well. A replacement coating becomes commercially persuasive when it can satisfy a customer’s chemical requirements while improving how a product is made or used.
Expansion starts in the laboratory
The recent recruitment notice offers a concrete view of Nanize’s development activity. It describes a 400-square-metre laboratory in Narvik and an international research team with qualifications in chemistry and materials science. The advertised scientist’s work includes optimising functionalised additives and developing coating formulations. The listing is now closed to applications.
The work described is important to the company’s expansion. A coating that performs well on one substrate does not automatically perform well on another. A rigid baking tray, a flexible film and a component exposed to cleaning chemicals present different problems. Formulation work helps translate a common technology into products suited to those particular conditions.
There is a longer history behind this effort. In March 2021, Valinor reported that Nanize had advertised three materials-scientist positions and was continuing collaboration with SINTEF in Trondheim. That account describes an earlier stage of research expansion, rather than a new announcement. Read alongside the recent recruitment notice, it shows a sustained emphasis on building scientific capability.
The business significance is straightforward. Industrial customers buy consistency. Reproducing a coating across batches, applying it uniformly and establishing its operating limits are central to turning a promising material into a dependable supply relationship.
A manufacturing proposition built around curing
Nanize describes its technology as PFAS-free polysilazane formulations combined with a rapid curing process. Its website reports curing in less than a minute, with some applications below 70 degrees Celsius, and compatibility with materials including metals, glass and plastics.
Those conditions matter because the curing step can constrain which substrates a manufacturer can use and how much production space the process requires. A shorter treatment at a lower temperature could make a coating easier to integrate into an existing line. The actual benefit depends on the complete process, including preparation, drying and handling.
The company describes the cured material as a dense network dominated by silicon-oxygen bonds, chemically bonded to the underlying surface. In practical terms, its aim is a hard protective layer with functional surface properties. The structure is intended to support durability while giving manufacturers control over how the surface interacts with its surroundings.
Intellectual property provides another identifiable milestone. United States patent US12129396B2, titled Polysilazane compositions, was granted on 29 October 2024 and identifies Nanize AS as the assignee. A patent establishes protection for an invention; product performance still has to be demonstrated in the customer’s intended use.
Why the PFAS free opportunity is widening
PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, comprise thousands of manufactured chemicals. Many persist for long periods, and some accumulate in people, animals or the environment. The United States Environmental Protection Agency reports that exposure to certain PFAS at certain levels may contribute to health effects including reduced immune response, reproductive and developmental effects, and increased risk of some cancers.
This is a serious reason to reduce avoidable exposure. It also requires precision. Different PFAS have different properties, and the evidence does not justify treating every substance or every finished product as having identical toxicity.
Food is a particular concern because contamination can arise at several points. The European Food Safety Authority identifies polluted soil and water, animal feed, packaging and processing equipment as possible routes. Its 2020 assessment established a combined tolerable weekly intake of 4.4 nanograms per kilogram of body weight for four PFAS: PFOA, PFOS, PFNA and PFHxS. That is an exposure benchmark for those substances, rather than a specification for a coating.
For businesses, these concerns create a reason to examine chemical choices earlier in product development. A procurement team assessing a coating today may also be considering whether that formulation will remain suitable for customers in several markets over the product’s commercial life.
The opportunity is therefore expanding in scope. Packaging producers, cookware brands and equipment manufacturers encounter different rules, but each can face pressure to document what its products contain. That broadening requirement supports demand for alternatives with clearly described chemistry and credible application data.
Different markets are creating different obligations
Europe’s packaging rules provide a prominent example. The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation restricts PFAS in food-contact packaging above specified limits. Its application does not mean every PFAS-containing product in every industry is already prohibited. The wider European PFAS restriction process is a separate regulatory undertaking.
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration determined in January 2025 that 35 food-contact notifications for PFAS-containing grease-proofers used on paper and paperboard were no longer effective following abandonment of those uses. This was a specific change affecting packaging treatments, rather than a nationwide prohibition of all fluoropolymers or all nonstick cookware.
State requirements add another layer. Minnesota prohibited intentionally added PFAS in food packaging from January 2024 and in 11 categories of new products, including cookware, from January 2025. A manufacturer selling across state lines consequently needs to consider more than federal rules alone.
Denmark had already restricted paper and board food-contact materials with added PFAS in 2020. Its experience demonstrates that the substitution effort predates the newest European packaging requirements.
Canada’s March 2025 risk-management approach proposed phased action for PFAS excluding fluoropolymers. It identified food packaging among potential consumer uses for management and industrial food-contact materials among uses requiring further evaluation. The distinction between a proposed approach and an enacted product prohibition matters when describing a company’s obligations.
In Australia, the Australian Industrial Chemicals Introduction Scheme initiated an evaluation of 522 listed PFAS in October 2025 and required information about their introduction and use. This is another example of expanding scrutiny, although an evaluation is different from a blanket ban.
Taken together, these developments explain why the commercial opportunity is widening without requiring a speculative market-size forecast. More manufacturers have a reason to investigate alternatives, and suppliers must be able to explain precisely which requirements their products address.
Food manufacturing offers several routes to adoption
Cookware and bakeware are the clearest food-related applications on Nanize’s website. The company presents its coatings as a way to provide PFAS-free nonstick surfaces while simplifying the coating and curing process. It also identifies low-friction applications in manufacturing, including contact between bottles and production equipment.
These examples suggest different routes to commercial value. A cookware brand could evaluate a formulation for a new product range. An industrial bakery could investigate release performance on reusable trays or moulds. A packaging-equipment manufacturer could assess whether selected coated contact points reduce scuffing or resistance during container handling.
Each is a separate qualification project. A coating that contacts hot food needs evidence appropriate to that contact. A coating on a container guide must withstand the relevant mechanical loads and cleaning regime. Packaging development brings further questions about barrier properties, converting operations and end-of-life handling.
This is where Nanize’s expanding range of commercial targets becomes useful. It creates several possible entry points for customers, each with its own performance measures and business case. Success in one category can establish manufacturing experience, while further applications still require their own evidence.
The people behind the technology and its commercial development
Nanize’s public leadership page names four executives. Together, their stated backgrounds bring materials research, industrial commercialisation and corporate development into the business.
Dr Kingsley Iwu, CTO and founder, has a chemistry background, a master’s degree and a doctorate in materials science, and a specialism in nanotechnology. His role places the underlying science at the centre of the company’s development.
Håvard Lillebo, CFO and founder, brings entrepreneurial experience to the financial side of building a materials business.
David Hogg, CEO, is described by Nanize as a former chief operating officer of Suntech, with substantial experience in solar energy and commercialising intellectual property.
Jerry Stokes, chief commercial officer, brings experience in solar and batteries to the work of identifying customers and developing industrial markets.
The scientific credits extend beyond the executive page. The US patent names Kingsley Odinaka Iwu, Nguyen Hong Quang, Vivek Kumar Singh and Anisa Yaseen as inventors. These are documented invention credits and should be distinguished from a current employee roster.
Nanize’s public technical blogs also credits Paul George Savluc with online business development, marketing, software and AI-related work. That contribution adds a publicly identified commercial and digital role alongside the leadership and research credits.
For an industrial customer, the relevance of this mix is practical. Materials specialists must define what a coating can do, while commercial teams must establish where that capability solves a problem valuable enough to justify adoption.
How Nanize can earn the next stage of growth
The strongest case for Nanize rests on a combination of chemical substitution and useful manufacturing performance. Removing PFAS from a formulation addresses a defined chemical choice. Rapid curing, dependable release and durability can give customers additional reasons to consider the technology.
Comparisons with PTFE, the fluoropolymer associated with familiar nonstick cookware, need to remain specific. Nanize reports lower friction than Teflon. A customer’s decision, however, also depends on wear, temperature, food release, cleaning resistance and service life. A favourable result on one test does not establish superiority in every use.
The FDA also distinguishes finished, highly polymerised cookware coatings, from which it reports negligible PFAS migration, from certain historical grease-proofing applications on paper. The case for replacing fluorinated chemistry includes environmental persistence and regulatory exposure as well as the behaviour of the finished surface.
For Nanize, the next commercial advances will come through well-defined applications: a coating qualified on the right substrate, made consistently and supported by the documents a customer needs. Those achievements can turn growing interest in PFAS-free materials into durable business relationships.
The company has a clear opening. Manufacturers are reconsidering the chemistry of surfaces they once took for granted. Nanize’s task is to make its answer work reliably, at the pace and scale those manufacturers require.
Explore Nanize’s technology and discuss an application at www.nanize.com or through its contact page.