Well-known factors influencing this development include the price of petroleum, global climate change, national security, and public policy. Other factors that may not be as obvious include strategic plans being made by smaller plant biotechnology companies, the development of new ag-based supply chains, a global interest in biodiversity and the development of new products.
Perhaps the most significant of all of these influences is the significant increase in both interest and investments, by public and private organizations. On the public side, the USDA and the DOE recently funded over $18 Million for research and development of biomass. These projects include research into genetic engineering, identification of plant genes involved in biosynthesis, and the evaluation of new crops for use in thermo chemical processing. The private sector invested over $5 Billion in the development of cleantech in the U.S. and Europe in 2007 alone. In fact, the Los Angeles Venture Association in January named Ceres, a plant biotechnology company specializing in new biofuels crops, as the Best Venture Financing in Clean Technology!
In addition to Ceres, a number of companies are working to develop new traits in plants that will lend themselves to further development of biofuels and other biobased products. They include: Linnaeus Plant Sciences, Mendel Biotechnology, Performance Plants, Infinite Enzymes, Sustainable Oils, LLC and Targeted Growth. These organizations are involved in this space for a number of reasons. In many cases, they already have technology that is licensed to large companies, like Monsanto, for use in commodity crops such as corn or soybeans. The development of specialty crops provides an expanded market for those traits. In other cases, the new crop itself offers unique characteristics that are enhanced by the new trait. Finally, some companies are developing transgenic crops to produce new materials that are not native to the crop itself.
An example of these "new generation" biotechnology companies can be seen in the recently announced partnership between Metabolix and the Danforth Plant Science Center. The focus is to develop a strong research program around a variety of oilseeds. Dr. Oliver Peoples, co-founder and CEO of Metabolix said the goal is to "create another biobased route to economically produce bioplastics and biofuels in high yields directly in non-food crops." Metabolix is a bioplastics company using MIT-developed technology in partnership with Archer Daniels Midland. Danforth Plant Science Center is a nonprofit research institute in St. Louis supported largely by Monsanto.
Organizations continue to form new partnerships to improve output traits in crops for new applications and to grow biobased materials in plants. I believe we are witnessing a change from a fairly small number of commodity crops to a wide variety of new crops that will be able to exploit many profitable niche markets. I will highlight many of these companies and opportunities in future editorials and on the BiobasedNews.com website.
Pete Nelson is a principal in BioDimensions, LLC, a consultancy dedicated to helping companies producing plant-based products prosper. He can be reached by email at pnelson@biobased.org.