Ceres and Rohm and Haas to Study Plant-Based Bioproducts
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.