Corn-Fed. Bioprocess plant will produce polymers for carpet-making from corn via a fermentation process. (Photo courtesy of Dupont)

A chemical plant nearing completion in east Tennessee is on the cutting edge of the transition from a petroleum economy to one based on renewable feedstocks. The plant, owned by a joint venture of a U.S.-based chemical giant and a major U.K.-based food-products company, will produce a polymer made from corn rather than petroleum feedstock.

CH2M Hill Lockwood Greene, Spartanburg, S.C., is building the $100-million biochemical plant in Loudon, Tenn., for DuPont Tate & Lyle Bioproducts, Wilmington, Del., under a contract for engineering, procurement and construction management. Tate & Lyle PLC, London, produces ingredients from corn, wheat and sugar for the food and beverage, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, paper, packaging and building industries.

Following completion in August, the plant will produce 100 million lbs per year of Bio-PDO, an organically produced version of the petrochemical 1,3 propanediol, says John Halberstadt, DuPont Tate & Lyle president. DuPont produces its Sorona polymer from the PDO, he says.

Corn sugar will be fed to genetically engineered bacteria in fermentation tanks that then produce the PDO as a by-product. “There are a lot of the same technologies that you would see in a chemical plant with a fermentation process on the front end,” says Chuck McCleskey, director of bioprocess for CH2M Hill Lockwood Greene.

“The biological route has an advantage in both investment and operating cost,” says Halberstadt. “It costs 30% to 40% less energy than the traditional method.” But some think the advantage is oversold. “It takes a lot of diesel to grow a bushel of corn,” counters Ian Julian, director of synthetic fibers, Chemical Market Associates Inc., Vienna, Va.

Julian foresees a hard slog for Sorona in cracking its primary market, the carpet industry. “You don’t get any consumer acceptance for higher prices of bio-based products,” he says. “That’s a large volume of the product for the carpet market unless they get a large market growth over the next couple of years.” The Sorona fiber must be competitive in both price and performance, he notes. High oil prices are opening the door for bio-PDO’s entry to the market.

McCleskey sees bioprocess as a major growth market. “We see this market as the best potential going forward as far as chemical projects. We are pursuing several of these projects in the biochem arena,” he says.