Thousand Oaks, California and
Springhouse, Pennsylvania
April 30, 2007
Energy crop company
Ceres, Inc. and
Rohm and Haas Company
(NYSE: ROH), a leading manufacturer of specialty materials,
today announced a research collaboration that will work toward
producing plant-based alternatives to a petroleum-derived
material used in thousands of home and industrial products. Such
an innovation would boost the economics of energy crops and
biofuel production, and could one day displace as many as 280
million gallons of oil annually with a renewable source.
Funded by a $1.5 million research grant from the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, the three-year project will determine if energy
crops planted for cellulosic ethanol could simultaneously
produce methacrylate monomers, a key raw material used in the
manufacture of many products including paint and coatings,
building materials, and acrylic sheet and resins. The economics
are attractive. More than 1.5 billion pounds of methacrylate
monomers are produced annually in the United States, a market
worth $780 million.
Though in its early stages, the science looks promising.
Molecular biologists and biochemistry experts at Ceres say that
some plants naturally produce compounds similar to methacrylate
monomers, but do not necessarily accumulate them in extractable
forms or quantities. They believe it may be feasible to alter
the way plants produce these compounds so that they can be
extracted from the dried stalks, stems and leaves before these
are fed into biorefineries producing ethanol from cellulose.
Cellulosic ethanol derives its energy from the whole plant
rather than just the grain, as in corn-based ethanol.
Ceres President and CEO Richard Hamilton says the potential
production of co-products may encourage greater investments in
biorefineries capable of producing ethanol from cellulose.
“Getting the cellulosic ethanol industry up and running will
take significant investments and the bigger the prize at the
end, the better. Methacrylate monomers are a compelling
co-product due to the significant market size, feasibility of
plant-based production and the fact that it is currently derived
from oil and natural gas,” Hamilton said.
There is a readymade market for plant-based methacrylate
sources, but the final product will still need to be up to
industry specifications, says Tim Donnelly, Global Technology
Director for Rohm and Haas Company’s Primary Materials business.
As one of the world’s leading producers of acrylate and
methacrylate monomers, Rohm and Haas Company is bringing its
market knowledge and technical expertise to the project. They
will assist in developing extraction and isolation technology as
well as evaluating the end-products.
“Rohm and Haas Company’s Primary Materials business is
aggressively pursuing economically viable routes to acrylic
monomers made from renewable materials. We look forward to
adding our monomer expertise to this project,” says Donnelly.
Steve Bobzin, Ph.D., Ceres’ principal investigator on the grant,
says that the research will focus first on producing
methacrylate monomers and similar compounds in a model plant
with well-understood metabolic pathways. Successful traits would
then be applied to energy crops.
Funding for this project was provided by USDA and DOE’s 2006
Biomass R&D Initiative grant program, which has targeted $17.5
million for 17 biomass projects. Separately, Ceres received a
second $1.5 million grant under the program to double
switchgrass yields by 2020. Switchgrass is one of the top
feedstocks being considered for cellulosic ethanol production.
Ceres, Inc. is the leading developer of high-yielding energy
crops that can be planted as feedstocks for cellulosic ethanol
production. Its development efforts cover switchgrass,
miscanthus, poplar and other energy crops. Founded in 1997 as a
plant genomics company, Ceres holds the largest proprietary
collection of fully sequenced plant genes, including more than
75,000 genes and 10,000 gene promoters. The privately held
company also licenses its traits to other organizations. Ceres’
headquarters are located in Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Since 1909, Rohm and Haas has developed innovative technologies
and solutions for the specialty materials industry. The
company’s technologies are found in numerous industries,
including: building and construction, electronics, food and
retail, household and personal care products, industrial
process, packaging, paper, transportation and water. Based in
Philadelphia, PA, the company generated annual sales of $8
billion in 2006. |
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