The growing global glut of crude and corresponding collapse in oil prices are reshaping short-term market dynamics. In this environment, it is easy to forget that \u2013 long term \u2013 industries that have traditionally relied on petroleum-based feedstocks must still innovate to sustainably meet the needs of a rapidly expanding global population.\u00a0 A global, connected middle class \u2013 expected to roughly double by 2030 \u2013 is rapidly changing the breadth and scale of consumer demand, as well as signaling the need to rethink how we meet it.\u00a0 Nowhere is this more apparent than in the plastics industry.<\/p>\n
According to a January 2016 report released by The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, in partnership with the World Economic Forum (WEF), and supported by McKinsey & Company, plastics production has increased 20 fold over the past 50 years from 15 million tonnes in 1964 to 311 million tonnes.\u00a0 The focus of the report highlights how challenges such as this and others can be solved by shifting toward the \u201ccircular economy\u201d, a systemic approach that emphasizes maximizing both the use of renewable feedstocks and the re-use of materials through recycling.<\/p>\n
Such a system-wide model for the economy is also vital if society is to meet the gauntlet thrown down by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.\u00a0 These goals, ratified by all 193 members of the United Nations in 2015, present a common determination to take bold and transformative steps towards a better future for all.\u00a0 One of the goals \u2013 Ensure Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns \u2013 recognizes that many of our past approaches have failed.\u00a0 Despite near-universal efforts to promote recycling, only 14% of plastic packaging is collected today.\u00a0 The results have had enormous environmental consequences.\u00a0 An estimated 150 million tonnes of plastics are in our ocean today.\u00a0 Under business as usual projections, this figure is expected to grow until it exceeds the aggregate weight of fish in the ocean by 2050.<\/p>\n
In addition, plastics rely heavily on conventional fossil fuels both as direct material feedstock and as a process energy source, contributing to global greenhouse gas emissions.\u00a0 Scientists believe that absent an \u201cat scale\u201d alternative to conventional fossils fuels, CO2 levels in the atmosphere are expected to rapidly increase, exceeding the 2\u00b0C brink that international scientists agree is the threshold to avoid the most challenging impacts of climate change.<\/p>\n
The question naturally emerges: How do we rethink and transform the future of plastics?<\/p>\n
One compelling route identified by the report is to \u201cdecouple plastics from fossil feedstocks\u201d in part by creating renewably sourced materials.\u00a0 At DuPont, we have long been committed to enabling a sustainable bioeconomy, but in a sharply competitive environment versus petro-based feedstocks, that commitment alone is not enough. We also need to develop products from renewable resources that are:<\/p>\n
Economically viable;
\nOffer differentiated product performance; and
\nMeet the needs of the emerging circular economy.
\nBreakthrough \u201cBuilding Block\u201d Unlocks Vast Landscape of Bio-Based Materials<\/p>\n
In a seminal 2004 report, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) identified twelve \u201cbuilding block chemicals\u201d that represented the most promising pathways to unlocking the value of bio-based materials, if the complexity and costliness of converting the sugar from natural resources into high-value bio-based chemicals could be overcome.<\/p>\n
Recently, DuPont and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM)<\/a> \u2013 two of the world\u2019s corporate science leaders \u2013 announced a breakthrough<\/a> that promises to answer all three of the challenges identified above.\u00a0 The companies have developed a method for producing\u00a0furan dicarboxylic methyl ester\u00a0(FDME) from fructose.\u00a0 FDME is a high-purity derivative of\u00a0furandicarboxylic acid\u00a0(FDCA), one of the 12 building blocks identified by the DOE that can be converted into a number of high-value, bio-based chemicals or materials.\u00a0 It has long been sought-after and researched, but has not yet been available at commercial scale and at reasonable cost.\u00a0 The new FDME technology is a more efficient and simple process than traditional conversion approaches and results in higher yields, lower energy usage and lower costs.<\/p>\n FDME platform technology will have applications in packaging, textiles, engineering plastics and many other industries.\u00a0 ADM and DuPont are taking the initial step in the process of bringing FDME to market by moving forward on the scale-up phase of the project. The two companies are planning to build an integrated 60 ton-per-year demonstration plant in Decatur, Ill., which will provide potential customers with sufficient product quantities for testing and research.<\/p>\n