DuPont Joint Venture to Explore Use of Renewable Resources
The Philadelphia Inquirer --May 27
May 27--Just weeks after shedding the textiles-and-fibers business that sustained it through much of the 20th century, DuPont Co. yesterday announced a significant step toward the production of industrial materials from renewable resources.
DuPont, under chief executive officer Charles O. Holliday Jr., has staked its
future on integrating biology with the 202-year-old company's traditional
strengths in chemistry and materials.
From an industry perspective, the DuPont Tate & Lyle BioProducts' plan is
part of a fledgling trend to switch from hydrocarbons to carbohydrates as a
source of raw materials. Hydrocarbons come from crude oil and natural gas.
Plants make carbohydrates.
It is a shift from "fermented dinosaurs to fermented corn sugar,"
said Brent Erickson, a vice president of the Washington-based Biotechnology
Industry Organization, who specializes in industrial and environmental issues.
DuPont is currently making the material, called Sorona, from two
petrochemical feedstocks, said John D. Halberstadt, a DuPont employee who was
named president of the Wilmington-based joint venture.
The $70 million plant in Louden, Tenn., will use a fermentation and
purification process developed by DuPont and Tate & Lyle to replace one of
those feedstocks.
When the new plant begins production in 2006, Sorona will be 37 percent based
on corn, Halberstadt said. Sorona's uses include a fabric that is softer to the
touch than polyester and nylon.
"The fact that DuPont is actually doing this is going to send big
ripples through the rest of the chemical world," Erickson said.
DuPont's partner in this venture, Tate & Lyle, of London, produces
ingredients from corn, wheat and sugar for many industries, including food,
beverage, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic.
DuPont is not the first to make such a move. Among others, Cargill Dow L.L.C.,
which was formed in 1997 by agricultural processor Cargill Inc. and Dow Chemical
Co., has been producing plastic resins from plant sugars for more than two years
at a large-scale plant in Blair, Neb. The parent companies invested $300 million
in their effort.
About 5 percent of chemical sales today depend at least in part on
bioprocessing through fermentation or biocatalysis, according to a presentation
by McKinsey & Co. at an industry conference last month.
Industrial biotechnology is considered environmentally sound because it ends
the use of hazardous materials, such as heavy metals, as catalysts, said Mary
Kirchhoff, assistant director of the American Chemical Society's Green Chemistry
Institute in Washington. It also uses less energy.
DuPont has a goal to derive 25 percent of its revenue from renewable sources
by the end of this decade. The company had reached 14 percent in 2002, up from
10 percent in 2001. Its 2003 revenue was $27 billion.
Achieving the goal is much more likely after the sale of its Invista
textiles-and-fibers division. That reduced DuPont's exposure to raw materials
related to oil and natural gas by half, according to DuPont executives.
DuPont shares closed up 4 cents yesterday at $42.79.
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