BOULDER, CO - According to a new report from Pike Research, the market for green chemistry represents an opportunity that will grow from $2.8 billion in 2011 to $98.5 billion by 2020.

“Green chemistry markets are currently nascent, with many technologies still at laboratory or pilot scale,” said Pike Research President Clint Wheelock. “And many production-scale green chemical plants are not expected to be running at capacity for several more years. However, most green chemical companies are targeting large, existing chemical markets, so adoption of these products is limited less by market development issues than by the ability to feed extant markets at required levels of cost and performance.”

Wheelock adds that, while Pike Research anticipates dramatic growth rates for green chemicals during the coming decade, these emerging markets represent a drop in the bucket compared to the $4 trillion global chemical industry. By 2020, the firm expects that the total chemical industry will expand to $5.3 trillion in annual revenues.

Pike Research forecasts that green alternatives in the polymer sector will represent the highest penetration level (5.7 percent) within the total chemical market, as it is somewhat more developed than the other key sectors. The special, fine and commodity chemical sectors are more nascent and will enjoy somewhat lower penetration rates during the forecast period. The three major themes driving the green chemistry movement forward are: waste minimization in the chemical production process, replacement of existing products with less toxic alternatives and a shift to renewable (non-petroleum) feedstocks.

Pike Research’s report, “Green Chemistry,” examines the three major segments of the green chemical market. Representative companies from each segment are profiled and global forecasts, segmented by world region, extend through 2020. An Executive Summary of the report is available for free download on the firm’s Web site.

Pike Research is a market research and consulting firm that provides in-depth analysis of global clean technology markets. For more information, visit, www.pikeresearch.com.