In 2004, DuPont formed a unique partnership with BP to develop a new advantaged process to make a next-generation advanced biofuel called biobutanol.  At that time, few people had heard of biobutanol and few knew of its fuel properties that make it similar in characteristics to gasoline along with several advantages compared to existing biofuels, including (1) biobutanol can be used in existing pipelines, (2) biobutanol can be blended at a higher concentration into gasoline,  (3) biobutanol can enhance ethanol in blends due to its intrinsic lower vapor pressure, and (4) biobutanol has a higher energy density that provides for better fuel economy. 

Similar to our Bio-PDO^TM efforts, the DuPont scientists on the biobutanol program are the first in the world to have created and successfully demonstrated the technology to enable biobutanol production in micro-organisms where no such ability existed before.  This new technology provides a new paradigm for the cost-efficient production of biobutanol by being able to efficiently design the network of biological processes needed to selectively produce biobutanol. 

This talk will focus on the success factors needed for development of world-class biofuel bioprocesses and bioproducts along with highlighting some of the technical achievements that DuPont has made with our biobutanol process development efforts.