The current discussions about conversion of renewable feedstocks like starch, sugars or biomass were in recent years dominated by the focus on 1st and 2nd generation bioethanol. At Novozymes we have developed enzyme products and launched Cellic CTec2 in February, 2010 which enables the production of fuel ethanol from biomass at 2USD/barrel. These days, we see the discussion advancing towards other chemical building blocks. We even see a move from a technology push discussion to a market pull situation as players like P&G announce replacement of petroleum-based materials with sustainably sourced renewable materials (http://www.pg.com/en_US/sustainability/overview.shtml).  Novozymes has used the ethanol focus to build a technology platform for the production of �cheap sugars�, which can be used to produce those building blocks.  This can be done via heterogenous catalysis (e.g. in the case of e.g. polyethylene production from ethanol at Braskem), via designed microbial cells in combination with heterogenous catalysis (e.g. production of 3-hydroxypropionic acid for manufacture of bio-acrylic acid). A technical prerequisite for this are microbial cells, which are optimised for the production of a specific compound via metabolic pathway engineering. Biotechnology routes for the production of chemicals and fuels are increasingly attractive alternatives in the high petroleum price world but biotechnology needs to be able to compete on two main parameters namely cost and performance. The paper will describe Novozymes portfolio and business model which is based on partnering with key players in the feedstock industries (i.e. major grain processors) and key players in the chemical industry (i.e. future marketers of renewable chemicals).

Chemical building blocks from renewable feedstocks

241st National Meeting (2011)

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