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Suggested Citation:"5 Partnerships and Integration." National Research Council. 2008. Bioinspired Chemistry for Energy: A Workshop Summary to the Chemical Sciences Roundtable. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12068.
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Page 31
Suggested Citation:"5 Partnerships and Integration." National Research Council. 2008. Bioinspired Chemistry for Energy: A Workshop Summary to the Chemical Sciences Roundtable. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12068.
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Page 32

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5 Partnerships and Integration Workshop organizer Doug Ray remarked at the start of around $500,000, to fund a group of scientists to collaborate the workshop, that this was an opportunity for participants on a major chemistry problem. Harry Gray, Kitt Cummins, to reach across disciplines and learn from one another. A Nate Louis, Dan Nocera, and others are working on a project n ­ umber of speakers reiterated similar messages in their involving the direct conversion of sunlight into fuel. They are talks, and highlighted the need for partnerships, and other in the initial stages of the program and have received about efforts that bring different sectors and disciplines together $500,000 so far. After several years, the research teams can to advance bioinspired chemistry approaches for energy apply for funding up to several million dollars per year. applications. Various speakers and workshop participants Brent Erickson of BIO, Henry Bryndza of DuPont, and presented their thoughts on these needs. Mark Emptage of DuPont presented several more examples of projects involving partnerships among and between i ­ndustry, academe, and national laboratories: PARTNERSHIPS Brent Erickson of Biotechnology Industry Organiza- • The company POET is working with Novozymes tion (BIO) discussed the importance of partnerships among to develop a no-cook cold enzyme saccharification step that companies. He thinks that large companies with broad skills will reduce the amount of energy for conventional ethanol in biotechnology or those that have good biotechnology production. partners will capture the full value creation and benefit in • POET and Ethanex have developed an improved the chemicals and fuels markets. Smaller companies, said fractionation process so that when corn is ground, a much Erickson, can benefit by partnering with each other or with finer separation of all the different components of the corn larger companies, or they can forge strategic partnerships kernel results. In combination with the no-cook process with industrial biotech companies. Henry Bryndza of fractionation, this leads to a 6 percent increase in ethanol DuPont stressed how important partnerships are for success. yield. Some of the enzyme hydrolysis waste is put back in the For DuPont, there is a complex value chain driven by market broiler along with the corn stover and cob fiber to generate disruptions that require partnerships and integrated science electricity. approaches to make a difference. He said, “We really need • Cargill has been working on developing a biological partnerships. . . . We are partnering in virtually all of these route from corn sugar to 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3 HP) for areas for a couple of reasons. One is that we can’t do it all about five years, but could not solve the last step. They then ourselves. The second is that in some cases, partners bring decided to partner with Codexis, which used their metabolic market-channel access that we don’t have.” engineering high-throughput screening to figure out how As discussed in Chapter 2, Michael Clarke of the to do it biologically. One of the products of this process National Science Foundation’s (NSF’s) Chemistry Division is acrylic acid, which is about a $4 billion global industry. talked about an NSF program that forms partnerships in Erickson noted that producing 3 HP from corn sugar is much academe. The program was originally called the Chemi- cheaper and more environmentally friendly than making it cal Bonding Centers but is now the Centers for Chemical from petroleum. Cargill is now working to commercialize Innovation. NSF makes a number of relatively small awards, this process. 31

32 BIOINSPIRED CHEMISTRY FOR ENERGY • Cargill and Ashland are going to work together to an integrative approach is necessary to reach such goals, take the glycerine from biodiesel production in Europe to and that it is important to acknowledge the roles of allies in make propylene glycol. various scientific and engineering fields. • DuPont’s cellulosic ethanol program is a con- Mark Emptage of DuPont talked about how critical sortium effort involving other companies, government integration is when transferring biomass on the farm to fuels laboratories, and academia. A wide variety of chemical and in automobiles. He said that no single company has all the b ­ iological technologies is being looked at to convert mass necessary technologies, so it is important to work together. into concentrated bio oil. According to Henry Bryndza, During the discussion after the “Robust ­Implementation” DuPont representatives think that the variation in biomass session (Chapter 4), Alex Harris of Brookhaven National feedstocks is going to require an integration of sciences and Laboratory discussed integrating both ideas and materials. He multiple technologies. believes inorganic concepts need to be integrated with life pro- • An integrated corn biorefinery project has DuPont cesses to make energy-producing or conversion schemes work. partnering with Michigan State University, the National Harris referred to examples in the presentations that described Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and Vernium Corp. different approaches of life systems compared with engineered The project is funded by the Department of Energy using systems in terms of how a charge is transported from one a 50/50 cost-share approach, where companies contribute place to another and whether it is stored as chemical energy 50 percent of the funding. Pioneer, a DuPont-owned seed or transported as charger carriers. He asked, “Are we going to company, and John Deere work on feedstock harvest and learn from life systems’ basic principles of thermo­dynamics transport. Michigan State is working on a life-cycle assess- and chemical processes? Is that more likely to be the produc- ment of farming practices to understand the sustainability of tive route than to mimic what they’re actually doing?” Harris feeding corn stover into the process. DuPont and Verenium also asked about the challenges in integrating bioinspired are working on developing new enzymes for the hydrolysis systems with inorganic ones. G. Tayhas Palmore of Brown of corn stover to fermentable sugars. NREL has developed University explained that there needs to be an integration of several technologies for pretreatment with ethanologenic both ideas and materials, and that a multi­disciplinary team will fermentation organisms. help address the challenges presented. INTEGRATION AND INTERDISCIPLINARITY THE NEED FOR AN HONEST BROKER Bryndza thinks the integration of multiple sciences During the discussion after the “Industry Perspectives” and technologies is necessary. He said that it takes more session (Chapter 2), Daniel Nocera of the Massachusetts than biology; chemistry technologies are needed as well as Institute of Technology highlighted the need for an honest mechanical technologies. Bryndza also believes integration broker. He thinks that scientists can be honest brokers but is important in finding the best solution. He thinks that if asked the group to identify an organization that could be an scientists approach energy problems from either a ­biological effective, honest broker to guide scientists toward strategic perspective or a chemical perspective, it will not work investment. economically. During the “Fundamental Aspects” discussion (Chap- DEFINING DISTINCT ROLES ter 3) Marcetta Darensbourg of Texas A&M University said that her team’s work could not be done without the During the discussion after the “Robust Implementa- help of protein crystallographers. She said that there needs tion” session (Chapter 4), Daniel Nocera declared that to be support for chemists, biologists, and computational academia, national labs, and industry each have their own chemists. distinct roles. He said that academics should be working on Sharon Haynie of DuPont said that it is important not to problems that nobody else wants to work on because there forget the large infrastructure necessary to reach bioinspired is no financial payback. Eric Rohlfing of the Department of chemistry for energy goals, including analytical, computa- Energy talked about how difficult it is for physical scientists tional, and engineering components. Haynie believes that to understand biological systems.

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Faced with the steady rise in energy costs, dwindling fossil fuel supplies, and the need to maintain a healthy environment - exploration of alternative energy sources is essential for meeting energy needs. Biological systems employ a variety of efficient ways to collect, store, use, and produce energy. By understanding the basic processes of biological models, scientists may be able to create systems that mimic biomolecules and produce energy in an efficient and cost effective manner. On May 14-15, 2007 a group of chemists, chemical engineers, and others from academia, government, and industry participated in a workshop sponsored by the Chemical Sciences Roundtable to explore how bioinspired chemistry can help solve some of the important energy issues the world faces today. The workshop featured presentations and discussions on the current energy challenges and how to address them, with emphasis on both the fundamental aspects and the robust implementation of bioinspired chemistry for energy.

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