Wilmington, Delaware and
Copenhagen, Denmark
May 14, 2008
DuPont and Genencor, a
division of Danisco A/S,
today announced an agreement to form
DuPont Danisco
Cellulosic Ethanol LLC, a 50/50 global joint venture to
develop and commercialize the leading, low-cost technology
solution for the production of cellulosic ethanol -- a next
generation biofuel produced from non-food sources – to address a
$75 billion global market opportunity.
The partners plan an initial three-year investment of US$140
million, which will initially target corn stover and sugar cane
bagasse. Future targets include multiple ligno-cellulosic
feedstocks including wheat straw, a variety of energy crops and
other biomass sources.
“With food and gas prices surging at double-digit rates, there
is an imperative for sustainable biofuels technologies. This
joint venture addresses this issue head on,” said DuPont
Chairman and CEO Charles O. Holliday, Jr. “By integrating our
companies’ strengths and expertise in this new venture, we are
significantly increasing the potential to make cellulosic
ethanol from multiple non-food sources an economic reality
around the world.”
“By combining the world-class capabilities of DuPont and
Danisco, our joint venture will offer the technology standard
for cellulosic ethanol production,” said Danisco CEO Tom
Knutzen. “This joint venture will be a powerhouse of discovery,
development and engineering. It represents a major step forward
in Danisco’s new strategic intent to be a leading force in the
field of industrial biotechnology.”
Through the scientists and technologies of both companies,
DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC will launch an accelerated
effort to integrate the unique cellulosic processing
capabilities of both companies to economically produce ethanol
from non-food sources. The parent companies will license their
combined existing intellectual property and patents related to
cellulosic ethanol. The goal is to maximize efficiency and lower
the overall system cost to produce a gallon of ethanol from
cellulosic materials by optimizing the process steps into a
single integrated technology solution.
In the United States, the joint venture will scale up an
optimized technology package for corn cobs from integrating the
proprietary DuPont pretreatment and ethanologen technologies
with the innovative enzyme technology of Genencor, while DuPont
continues to analyze the collection and storage of cellulosic
feedstocks. The global joint venture expects its first pilot
plant to be operational in the United States in 2009, and its
first commercial-scale demonstration facility to be operational
within the next three years. The joint venture will be
headquartered in the United States and will be formed after
receipt of required regulatory approvals.
The joint venture will license its technology package directly
to ethanol producers for deployment in the United States and
around the world, as well as through the establishment of
regional cellulosic ethanol affiliates. The regional ethanol
affiliates will invest in equity interests with strategic
partners, including ethanol producers and energy companies, to
enable the rapid deployment of the joint venture’s cellulosic
ethanol technology at commercial scale. The joint venture’s
technology package can be used both as a “bolt-on” to an
existing ethanol plant -- expanding its capacity to accept
cellulosic feedstocks -- or as the design basis for a
stand-alone cellulosic ethanol facility. The joint venture
expects to enable production of commercial volumes of cellulosic
ethanol by 2012.
The integration of the partners’ individual technology platforms
will combine:
- A differentiated
pretreatment process developed by DuPont through its
collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy National
Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) that allows for reduced
capital costs;
- Enzyme technologies and
production platforms enabling high biomass-to-sugars
conversion rates developed by Genencor, a leader with
world-class capabilities in the discovery, optimization and
production of enzymes for cellulose conversion;
- A proprietary ethanologen,
also developed through the DuPont-NREL collaboration, based
on Zymomonas mobilis. This ethanologen has the ability to
convert sugars contained in the feedstock into high yields
of ethanol with fewer byproducts, and;
- The companies’ joint
engineering capabilities in process integration and facility
design.
Since 2000, the U.S. Department of
Energy has supported the efforts of DuPont and Genencor through
multiple grants totaling more than $60 million for the
development of pretreatment processes, advanced ethanol
conversion organisms and improved enzymes.
DuPont and Genencor have a history of successful collaboration.
In 1995 the companies partnered to develop the fermentation
biocatalyst that produces Bio-PDO™ propanediol, one of the first
commercial-scale industrial applications of metabolic
engineering designed to make a 100 percent renewably sourced
material from corn starch. Today, the product is manufactured by
DuPont Tate & Lyle Bio Products, LLC in Loudon, Tennessee, U.S.
DuPont and Genencor were recognized by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency in 2003 with the Presidential Green Chemistry
Challenge Award. Last year, leading scientists and engineers
from DuPont, Genencor and Tate & Lyle were recognized by the
American Chemical Society with the 2007 Heroes of Chemistry
award.
Genencor, a division of Danisco A/S, is a leader in the
industrial biotechnology sector. In more than 40 countries,
Genencor’s 1,400 employees develop and market innovative enzymes
and biobased solutions to improve the performance and reduce the
environmental impact of a wide variety of industries, from
laundry detergents to transportation fuels.
Danisco is a Denmark-based company with 9,700 employees in more
than 40 countries. It is one of the world's leading suppliers of
food ingredients, sugar and industrial bioproducts. Based on its
technology platform, it uses nature's own raw materials and
resources to develop and produce ingredients for food and other
products used in everyday life. The company was founded in 1989
and is listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange.
DuPont – one of the first companies to publicly establish
environmental goals 18 years ago – has broadened its
sustainability commitments beyond internal footprint reduction
to include market-driven targets for both revenue and research
and development investment. The goals are tied directly to
business growth, specifically to the development of safer and
environmentally improved new products for key global markets.
DuPont is a science-based products and services company. Founded
in 1802, DuPont puts science to work by creating sustainable
solutions essential to a better, safer, healthier life for
people everywhere. Operating in more than 70 countries, DuPont
offers a wide range of innovative products and services for
markets including agriculture and food; building and
construction; communications; and transportation.
The DuPont Oval Logo, DuPont™, The miracles of science™ and
Bio-PDO™ are registered trademarks or trademarks of DuPont or
its affiliates.
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