Remember that word? Switchgrass? It was touted as being able to fuel massive amounts of ethanol production because it can be planted just about anywhere, has short growing seasons, is not a food source and requires almost no fertilizer. Well, we may be getting closer…
Biomass Magazine reports
“Cambridge, Mass.-based Metabolix Inc. (MBLX) has created a variety of switchgrass that produces significant amounts of polyhydroxyalkanolate (PHA) bioplastics in leaf tissues. The company incorporated multiple genes into the switchgrass genome resulting in a new functional multi-gene pathway in switchgrass. Metabolix recently completed greenhouse trials showing that economically significant amounts of PHA and biomass could be produced by its new varieties.
“Metabolix has been developing technology to produce PHA polymer in switchgrass for over 7 years,” said Dr. Oliver Peoples, chief scientific officer for Metabolix. “This result validates the prospect for economic production of PHA polymer in switchgrass, and demonstrates for the first time an important tool for enhancing switchgrass for value-added performance as a bioenergy crop.”
Switchgrass has been identified by the U.S. DOE and USDA as a prime feedstock for producing next generation biofuels and bioproducts. The 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act mandated 16 billion gallons of ethanol must be produced by biomass crops, such as switchgrass, by the year 2022.”
Metabolix, Inc. is a biotechnology company that develops and focuses to commercialize alternatives to petrochemical-based plastics, chemicals and energy. Its first platform, which will be commercialized through a joint venture with Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), is a large-scale microbial fermentation system for producing a family of naturally occurring polymers known as polyhydroxyalkanoates, which was branded under the name Mirel.
The Company’s second technology platform, which is in an early stage, is a biomass biorefinery system using plant crops to co-produce both bioplastics and bioenergy. The Company is focused on developing entire production systems from gene to end. To exploit its first technology platform, the Company is working with ADM to build the Commercial Manufacturing Facility in Clinton, Iowa. This is also the home of ADM’s new ethanol expansion. Coincidence?
ADM currently hold 5.4% of Metabolix’s outstanding shares.
The news here is that switchgrass is becoming commercially viable. It will be a dirt cheap input for bioplastics and eventually biofuels.
Disclosure (“none” means no position):Long ADM, none
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