INSIGHT: Biopolymers may be wishful thinking

22 June 2006 17:15  [Source: ICIS news]

By Joe Kamalick

CHICAGO (ICIS news)--Industry executives attending the NPE international plastics exhibition have packed any panel discussion or technical speech about bio-based plastics, but some say the standing-room-only crowds are being lured by wishful thinking rather than sound economics.

To be sure, there is serious attention being paid to bioplastics by some major players, and biopolymers have made their first significant showing in the 60-year-old NPE conference.

No less a player than DuPont is working on developing an array of bio-based products by 2012, including new Sorona fibres using 1,3-propandiol from corn sugar fermentation for applications as sealants, adhesives and home and personal care products. In April this year DuPont announced formation of a global biofuels business unit.

As a measure of its commitment to bio-based production, DuPont has said it wants 25% of its revenue stream to be from renewable feedstocks by 2010. A 25% share of DuPont’s 2005 sales would be more than $6bn. That is big bucks in anybody's books.

The question remains, however, can chemical companies make money on bio-based feedstocks?

Bill Carteaux, president of the Society of the Plastics Industry, sponsor of the triennial NPE, suggested that profit is not necessarily the driving force behind the interest in biomaterials. He cited escalating energy and feedstock costs and persistent environmental, government and consumer market pressures for motivating the recent rise in interest in bio-based products.

A US Department of Agriculture specialist told industry executives that bio-based plastics face an array of problems, not least of which is the fact that they are not always biodegradable, they are water and temperature sensitive and they cannot be recycled with other plastics without detrimental effects.

In addition, according the department’s J L Willet, available feedstock starches vary greatly depending on growing conditions and the plants from which they’re drawn.

“But the number one challenge” to biopolymers, said Willet, “is how to make money with these products. If we can’t make money on them, no one is going to do anything.”

Jeff Lipton, president and chief executive of polymers producer Nova Chemicals, is downright pessimistic.

“I think the story on biopolymers is not very positive, at least in the short term,” he told ICIS news.

“I think it is pretty hard to see how to go to bio-based polymers and have them compete on specifications and quality with today’s standard products,” he said, “which are sold at much lower prices than they're valued at in the minds of customers and consumers.”

Lipton sees an object lesson for polymers manufacturers in biofuels.

“If you look at bio-based fuels today,” said Lipton, “their actual cost to manufacture is a lot higher than what we’re paying, and we’re paying premiums to get them on top of that. So you get two premiums built in: the government is offering subsidies for biofuels and they are adding to the price of gasoline.”

Lipton argues that without substantial government support, biofuels economics simply don’t work.

“So if you took those economics, and take away the government mandates and government supports and put those economics into the polymers business,” Lipton said, “I doubt very much whether anybody is going to see the economics work.”

“I know people are looking at bio-based plastics but I think they’re looking at the very long term and not for anything in the short term. I think it’s pretty hard to see that being successful,” he added.

Lipton is forthright in his views but reflects the thinking of many. Making polymers from renewable resources somehow has to be made to work.

By: Joe Kamalick
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