Partnerships

A key part of our strategy for success is working with corporate strategic partners to develop sustainable products and processes.

For example, we have high-impact strategic alliances with Procter and Gamble, DuPont, Eastman Chemical, Dow Corning, Cargill Dow, and the US Department of Energy/National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Key achievements

• Through long-standing collaboration with Procter and Gamble, we developed protease enzymes with specific functional capabilities for use in cleaning products.
  
• Together with DuPont, we received the US Environmental Protection Agency’s 2003 Presidential Green Chemistry Award for development of 1,3 propanediol (PDO), which uses renewable resources instead of petrochemicals to make high-quality polyester for use in textiles, carpeting, and packaging.
• We completed a 3-year, $17 million contract with the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to reduce the cost of enzymes used in the conversion of biomass to ethanol fuel.
• In 2004, we received a 1-year, $3.2 million extension from NREL to continue work on this project. Our scientists are working toward reducing enzyme costs to less than 20 cents per gallon of ethanol.
• Our researchers demonstrated that fuel can be created from renewable plant sources at a greater than 10-fold reduction in cost. These improvements were in the dosage of enzymes required and the cost of producing them.
• We are also working with Cargill Dow to convert low-cost biomass to fermentable sugars to produce bioethanol fuel and other chemicals.
• Genencor and Eastman Chemical have developed a revolutionary process for making ascorbic acid (vitamin C) from glucose, a refined product of corn.