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
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“I believe that history might be, and ought to be, taught in a new fashion so as to make the meaning of it as a process of evolution intelligible to the young.”
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