NEWS OF THE WEEK
ENTREPRENEURS WANTED ACS MEETING NEWS: Task force
outlines path to 100,000 new chemistry jobs in 20 years
A
S MANY AS 100,000 new jobs for chemists
could be created in the next 20 years if the recommendations of the American Chemical Society Presidential Task Force on Innovation in the Chemical Enterprise are carried out, according to the task force chair, George M. Whitesides, a chemistry professor at Harvard University. Whitesides spoke at a press conference held in conjunction with the ACS national meeting in Denver last week. The task force’s final report, “Innovation, Chemistry, and Jobs,” was released at the meeting. Joining Whitesides at the press confer-
PETER CUTTS PHOTOGRAPHY
Francisco (left) and Whitesides hold a press conference at the ACS national meeting in Denver.
BIOAMBER’S BIG BET SCALE-UP: Firm expands biobased
succinic acid production with plan for facility in Ontario
B BI OAMBER
BioAmber is producing biobased succinic acid at this plant in Pomacle, France.
IOAMBER, a renewable chemicals firm based in
Minneapolis, will build a biobased succinic acid plant in Sarnia, Ontario. The plant is expected to have an initial capacity of 17,000 metric tons per year and be completed in 2013. BioAmber’s plant is the latest in a string of succinic acid facilities planned by the nascent biobased chemicals industry for North America and Europe. Succinic acid is an intermediate chemical that proponents say can be made more cheaply from renewable feedstocks, such as sugar, than from petroleum. The fermentation-derived four-carbon acid has potential applications in bioplastics, polyurethanes, plasticizers, and solvents. The Sarnia facility will be BioAmber’s first in North America; in 2009, it opened a 3,000-metric-ton succinic plant in Pomacle, France. The firm raised $45 million in venture capital funding in May to help it expand succinic WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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ence were Joseph S. Francisco, who as ACS president in 2010 organized the task force, and task force members Robert H. Grubbs, a chemistry professor at California Institute of Technology, and Pat N. Confalone, vice president of global R&D at DuPont Crop Protection. “This subject is one that everyone on the task force feels passionately about,” Whitesides said. “Creating new and better jobs is the most important challenge facing the U.S. today.” Because many world problems such as climate change and sustainability require chemical innovation for their solution, it’s not clear why those new jobs are not being created. “ACS is prepared to address this question,” Whitesides said. The task force focused on “job growth through entrepreneurial activity and creation of small businesses,” Francisco said. The task force report contains four fundamental recommendations: ◾ ACS should develop a single organizational unit—a kind of “technological farmer’s market”—offering affordable (or free) help to entrepreneurs. ◾ ACS should increase advocacy of policies at the federal and state level to improve the business environment for entrepreneurs and start-up companies. ◾ ACS should work with academic institutions and other relevant organizations to promote awareness of career pathways and educational opportunities that involve or include entrepreneurship. ◾ ACS should increase public awareness of the value of early-stage entrepreneurship in the chemical enterprise. The report and its extensive appendixes are available at www.acs.org/CreatingJobs.—RUDY BAUM
acid production. And government ministries in Ontario and Canada have provided BioAmber with $36 million in grants and loans to locate in Sarnia. The plant is expected to generate 40 full-time jobs in its first phase. The firm plans to later increase succinic acid production with a new yeast strain that it is developing with agriculture giant Cargill. In addition, the company says it will produce butanediol (BDO) using technology from DuPont that converts succinic acid to BDO. At its peak, BioAmber says, the facility will produce 35,000 metric tons of succinic acid and 23,000 metric tons of BDO. BioAmber will face competition for both products. In August, BASF and Purac announced a joint venture to produce up to 25,000 metric tons of the intermediate in Barcelona by 2013. DSM and Roquette, through their Reverdia joint venture, expect a 10,000-metricton plant in Cassano Spinola, Italy, to be on-line in the second half of 2012. And Myriant Technologies is building a plant in Port of Lake Providence, La., capable of producing up to 15,000 metric tons. For BDO, meanwhile, biobased chemicals start-up Genomatica recently announced an Italian joint venture with plastics maker Novamont. Reverdia and Myriant have also disclosed their plans to make BDO from succinic acid.—MELODY BOMGARDNER
SEPTEMBER 5, 2011
