DuPont’s three-pronged biofuels strategy unfolds in seed, cellulosic ethanol and biobutanol

In Illinois, AgWired has filed a report on the strategy of North American DuPont Biofuels based on a presentation by exec Dennis Magyar at the International Farm Management Association 17 Congress.

The company confirmed its three-pronged strategy for producing sustainable feedstock, cellulosic ethanol and advanced biofuels. Magyar said that its Pioneer HiBred corn seed, the DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol effort to produce ethanol from switchgrass and other feedstocks in Tennessee, and the Butamax venture with BP to produce biobutanol from multiple feedstocks, were the focal points of the strategy.

DuPont chairman Chad Holliday confirmed in an interview at the BIO conference in Montreal that DuPont  had originally developed the biobutanol technology and could have “gone alone,” but chose to partner with a sophisticated partner in BP which had the downstream and upstream strength to strengthen the overall venture.

Holliday said that DuPont felt that it “could not wait”, that “we had the idea that we had to develop the technology faster,” and obtain “a first-mover advanteg” leading to the decision to team up with BP. He remarked that the company had sixteen partnerships in Japan alone and that management of partnerships was something that he believed by this stage “is in our DNA”.

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