History
In May 2004, DuPont and Tate & Lyle announced that they would start up a joint venture to build a facility that produces polymers from renewable feedstock instead of petrochemicals. In particular, their goal was to design a fermentation system that converts corn sugar into PDO (propanediol manufactured in this way is referred to in the media as "BioPDO"). They argue that using such a bioprocess is more energy efficient than conventional petrochemical processes (conversion of propylene into propanediol) because the bioprocess has four advantages over the conventional process: smaller environmental footprint, lower operating costs, smaller capital investment, and greater sustainability due to use of renewable corn feedstock.
Read more about this topic: Bioseparation Of 1,3-propanediol
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s damn is the history we make today.”
—Henry Ford (1863–1947)
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“The principle office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.”
—Tacitus (c. 55–117)