As the world continues to experience population growth, some of today’s issues are compounded into mega trends, forcing all of us to take a closer look at solutions. DuPont is one company examining the issues, and turning them into opportunities and solutions.

“We face global challenges that will ultimately determine the livability of our planet in the 21st century,” DuPont Chairman of the Board and CEO Charles O. “Chad” Holliday Jr. explained.

Recently, Holliday explored one of these mega trends — the drive for renewable energy and materials — before The Chief Executives’ Club of Boston.

“In my lifetime, the world’s human population has grown from about 2.5 billion to today’s figure of more than 6.5 billion,” he said. “The world’s population will increase to about 9 billion people by mid-century. Population growth and associated dynamics are driving energy issues and security issues.

“The majority of this population growth, however, will come in places that are currently not major markets for what we make and sell. The United Nations estimates that of the more than 9 billion inhabitants of the planet in 2050, only 1.2 billion will come from the more developed regions with 7.9 billion coming from the less developed areas.     

“Even if we exclude China from that figure, the estimate is that 6.5 billion people will be living in less developed regions. I know this is not news to you, but it’s such a clear pattern that for a company like DuPont that’s focused on longer-term R&D and focused on being here in the future understanding this pattern and deploying our resources opposite it is very important.”

Holliday believes that not only are the mega trends here to stay but that they will also gain momentum; therefore DuPont has been shaping its program to deal with the issues at hand.

The drive for renewable energy and materials
“As developed economies in Europe and North America continue to grow and other economies modernize in countries such as China and India, the demand for hydrocarbon resources is increasing dramatically,” Holliday said. “At the same time, hydrocarbon use, whether gasoline and diesel for transportation or coal for power plants, is contributing to climate change that scientists tell us is underway. Likewise, the polymer revolution that DuPont helped lead beginning in the 1930s has grown into a materials category essential for modern life — and one which is still dependent on hydrocarbon feedstocks.”

Holliday urges everyone to rethink the way we source and use energy and materials.

“We need to work to lessen our dependence on petroleum and minimize the amount of carbon we put into the atmosphere,” he said. “The opportunities for response include renewable energy such as photovoltaic, wind and biofuels and renewable materials, such as biomaterials. And these initiatives should be accompanied by material advances that can conserve energy so we use less of it in any form.”

DuPont is being proactive by creating new solutions based on many offerings of renewable energy.

“You may not think of DuPont as a leader in solar energy, but we have eight essential products that go into the manufacture of solar panels,” Holliday said. “Photovoltaics represent a $15 billion market, growing 30 percent per year; our product penetration is growing faster than the market.”

The type of renewable energy most often associated with DuPont is biofuels.      “Here the opportunity is large,” Holliday explained, “and it is growing rapidly but differently in each major region of the world.”

Currently 13 billion gallons of biofuels are consumed globally, with the United States and South and Central America consuming the most. The projection for the future is 87 billion gallons consumed by 2020.

“The main technical challenge will be to develop renewable fuels capacity that can adapt to the different crop inputs — from wheat in Europe to sugar cane in Brazil,” Holliday said. “In the United States, of course, the crop we most readily think of when we talk about biofuels is corn for ethanol. DuPont has led the efforts on the Integrated Corn-Based Bio Refinery, coordinating the work of eight partners who are pooling their expertise across different areas of know-how.

“With funding from DOE, DuPont and our partner POET are engaged in an all-out effort to move the technology quickly to commercialization. The Bio Refinery is key because it will produce cellulosic ethanol. Many ‘food crops’ such as corn, soybeans and wheat have industrial and food applications. This technology uses cobs, leaves and stalks to make the ethanol. In so doing, cellulosics will increase the amount of fuel per acre and decrease the pressure to use crops that are also used for food.”

DuPont has proprietary technology at two critical stages — in the process deriving the sugar from the biomass and with the microbe for converting the sugar to ethanol.

“We have been working on this technology since 2003,” Holliday explained. “We will have a pilot facility operating this year and a commercial plant planned for 2010.

“Biobutanol is another fuel alternative we will be introducing to the market this year. It can be blended with gasoline like ethanol, but it has certain advantages over ethanol, including higher energy content and therefore more miles to the gallon. The technology we are developing with BP also has the flexibility to use various natural sugar sources as a feedstock. And it is compatible with current fuel infrastructures for gasoline transport and distribution.

“We’re already developing the second-generation microbe, which will be more efficient and is targeted for full commercialization in 2010.

“Of course, as one of the world’s largest seed companies, DuPont is well aware that the most powerful tool at our disposal for renewable fuels remains the genetics of the seeds we sell. The best thing we can do is to continue to increase the productivity of crops, thereby making production of ethanol today and butanol in the future more efficient and taking pressure off the food value chain.”

In its transition to renewable fuels, DuPont has maintained its emphasis on energy conservation with energy-efficient products for builders. In addition to its Tyvek® and HomeWrap®, the company has developed a new Tyvek® AtticWrap™ and ThermaWrap™, which, when used together, can reduce home energy use by up to 15 percent with a five-year payback.

In addition to biofuels, DuPont suggests cutting edge bio-based materials can replace nonrenewable materials without any compromise in performance.

“We are finding that many renewables can outperform nonrenewable materials,” Holliday said.

Recently, the company dedicated a new plant in Loudon, Tenn. It is the world’s largest aerobic fermentation plant. It makes a product from corn sugar that the company calls Bio-PDO™.

“Materials have been DuPont’s traditional strength in research, technology and manufacturing, and we see great potential for renewable materials in the future,” Holliday said.
 
Science as part of the solution
“Science offers us a solution set to deal with the challenges we face,” Holliday said. “We have transformed our company into a 21st-century science company so we can position our company for a third century of growth for our shareholders and customers.

“But for science to work, it has to be accepted, understood and learned. We are a society that depends on science and engineering, and yet many of our citizens have little knowledge of science and how it works in their lives. That deficiency is illustrated and compounded by the fact that fewer and fewer young people are choosing to study and pursue careers in science and engineering.”

Holliday suggests that society maintaining its investment and leadership in science is key.

“And as an industry, we have to work in partnership with those who may have different perspectives on solutions,” he said.

That’s why DuPont participates in coalitions like the United States Climate Action Partnership (USCAP) on climate change and partnerships like the one it has with Environmental Defense for nanotechnology. It’s also why the company has instituted programs like its DuPont Challenge science essay writing contest for students — 11,000 of whom submitted entries this past year.

“The vision of DuPont is to be the world’s most dynamic science company, creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere,” Holliday said. “We know we can respond to the mega trends and meet the challenges they present.”