Plastic bottles, car parts, made from sugar? Yes, says DowDuPont – DowDuPont scientists are racing to commercialize a plastic that is derived from sugar and not crude oil – Plastic bottles car parts sugar DowDuPont - Arhive

DowDuPont scientists are racing to commercialize a plastic that is derived from sugar and not crude oil – an innovation that could be a key win for the conglomerate’s forthcoming Delaware spinoff.

They have developed a “revolutionary” process to construct a spaghetti-like molecular chain that can be formed into soda bottles, car parts and even polyester fabric, said Wilmington-based chemist Paul Fagan, who leads the company’s research into sustainable polymers.

The renewable molecules come from corn and sugar cane and have a less harmful impact on the environment because their production results in lower carbon emissions than that of petroleum plastics, Fagan said.

And, unlike oil, sugars will never run out, he said.

“A lot of our customers and, we ourselves, would like to get away from using oil to make things,” said Fagan, a precise-speaking scientist with more than 20 patents to his name. “We’re not only trying to make things sustainable but also … recyclable at the same time, that’s the advantage of the particular class of polymers I’m working on now.”

While plastics composed partially of plants are on the market – including DowDuPont’s Sorona fiber – Fagan’s goal for a 100 percent sugar-based plastic puts the company in direct competition with several startups and mid-size firms – all wanting to be first to disrupt the half-trillion dollar global plastics business.

“I would say there’s a race and people are approaching it from different perspectives,” said Marifaith Hackett, director of specialty chemicals at IHS Markit, a London-based corporate research firm. “The long-term promise is very significant, but it would almost certainly take years to achieve that promise.”

Fagan says DowDuPont, which is partnering with Chicago-based Archer Daniels Midland Company on the research, has the advantage of scale.

Still, as bio-plastics companies rush to be first in the market, their work is not registering as an existential threat to petrochemical plastic producers, Hackett said.

“They just think this is so far into the future,” she said. “It’s not figuring into their 10-year plans.”

Revenues for the infant bio-plastics industry today is estimated at between $3 billion and $8 billion, according to analysts. An industry report from May predicted that amount to grow 28 percent annually through 2023.

Fagan sees bio-plastics completely replacing petroleum in about 50 years, he said.

Capturing the industry’s initial growth would be key to bolstering DowDuPont’s forthcoming Specialty Products spin-off, which currently is a division within the company.

After completing a $150 billion merger in August, DowDuPont officials plan to split the firm into three independent companies in the coming years, along their current Specialty Products, Material Sciences and Agriculture divisions.

Specialty Products and Agriculture will be based in Delaware, while Material Sciences will be headquartered in Dow Chemicals’ home of Midland, Michigan, according to company officials.

Initially, it looked as though Fagan’s laboratories at the Experimental Station near Wilmington would become part of the Michigan company.

In September, DowDuPont added Fagan’s performance polymers line to the Delaware-based Specialty Products division, which is estimated to generate $20 billion in annual revenue as an independent company.

Referencing the disparate operations in the Specialty Products division, one DuPont analyst suggested it be “affectionately known as Hodgepodge Co.”

To date, it is unclear how and when Fagan’s operations will meld with Dow’s own bio-plastic chemists and engineers, spokeswoman Sandra James said.

“Some businesses, absolutely, will be working side by side,” James said. “But it’s a matter of time.”

Finding the right recipe

The path to a bio-plastic future is dotted with engineering obstacles, in addition to the intense competition.

“Making plastics (entirely) from renewables is feasible today at least on the laboratory scale but the economics just are not viable,” said Hackett. “A new plastic really has to promise a combination of performance and price point, and a lot of these bio-plastics struggle to do that.”

The Center for Sustainable Polymers at the University of Minnesota notes that most bio-plastics initially don’t have the same physical properties as traditional plastics, such as toughness, melting temperature and elasticity.

Fagan acknowledges that scientific challenges remain, but says his goal follows the same long-term DuPont business plan that has led to past household-name discoveries and drivers of revenue, such as nylon, neoprene, Kevlar and Tyvek.

“So, even if it’s many years forward, we’re setting the groundwork now because science always builds on science before it.”

DuPont’s groundwork is being set in partnership with Chicago-based Archer Daniels Midland Company. In early 2016, the two companies agreed to work together to refine the newly-discovered chemical process that builds the plant-based plastic, called furan dicarboxylic methyl ester.

“We have different renewable components that we can put together with these furan things that we are making at ADM to make a new suite of renewable polymers,” Fagan said. “They’re experts in making sugar out of corn kernels and we’re experts in doing some of the chemistry.”

While his team continues to tinker with the molecular structure of the sugar plastics, DowDuPont plans to open a production plant in Decatur, Illinois “in the next year or so,” Fagan said.

“We’ve developed the chemistry already, so we’re putting the process in place,” he said.

Praise from the industry

In apparent votes of confidence, Fagan and DuPont have received numerous awards for the bio-plastics work during the past year.

Fagan’s team of researchers, along with ADM, in August were named the best bio-plastic innovators by the Plastics Industry Association.

Then, last month, Fagan garnered more praise – this time internally – as he was honored by DuPont for “outstanding technical contributions that have delivered significant value to customers.”

DuPont’s Charles J. Pedersen award, which he received, is named after the company’s 1987 Nobel Laureate.

“Our customers rely on science-based innovations from DuPont to help them succeed,” said Specialty Products Division boss Alexa Dembek.

Fagan, commenting on the recognition and the research that underpins it, said it is a wave of the future that harkens to the past.

“It’s kind of going back to what was done in history,” Fagan said, “when everything was made out of plants.”

Contact Karl Baker at kbaker@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2329.