Biotechnology — or the use of technology to convert plant and biological material into commodities — is not new.
Doug Friedman, CEO of BioMADE, the Bioindustrial Manufacturing Innovation Institute, and strategic adviser for the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy, told GreenBiz that U.S. biotechnology "is pushing on 40 years" as an industry.
Today, the U.S. bioeconomy — including agricultural biotech, biobased products and petroleum-alternatives — is valued at over $950 billion.
Components of the bioeconomy
Biomanufacturing can affect the efficacy of many things important to a business plan, from "supply chain security, to sustainability, to environmental impacts, to workforce issues, to new technologies, to new chemicals and materials, and really everything in between," said Friedman.
And he stresses the malleability of biotechnology. Pharmaceutical production dominates the biotech space, which is why Friedman’s current organization, BioMADE, was created.
"BioMADE is a manufacturing innovation institute," said Friedman, "focused on really helping the United States gain and expand a foothold in the manufacturing of chemicals, materials and other products outside of the healthcare universe, using biology and biological systems."
Specifically, biomanufactured products include everything from biofuels to biobased plastics.
For example, biobased, petroleum-alternative products are most commonly found in plastic and foam alternatives. Ford and Jose Cuervo Tequila are partnering to explore the use of agave byproduct as a more sustainable bioplastic than the petroleum-based norm.
Another major sector for the bioeconomy is agriculture. Agricultural biotechnology includes engineering plants to produce crops with specific biological benefits, such as weed resistance and exaggerated heat tolerance.
"Biotech crops are helping farmers reduce their soil tillage, reduce pesticide applications, and increase crop yields per acre with the same or fewer inputs," said Lynne Finnerty, senior director of agriculture and environment at Biotechnology Innovation Organization, in an email.
In France, Michelin and IFPEN unveiled an industrial-scale facility to produce biobased butadiene, a main ingredient in rubber. Biobased butadiene can replace the petrochemical-based butadiene traditionally used to make rubber tires. The facility can produce about 20 to 30 metric tons of biobased butadiene a year, a number on its own woefully inadequate to make a tangible impact.
"The butadiene market is measured in millions of tons per year,” said Friedman, "so how do you get to that next step so that it can have a commercial impact… to achieve the results that you want societally from biotechnology?"
Policy and the bioeconomy
The federal government and the biotechnology industry have a long history of partnership.
"The federal government has played an incredibly important role in biotechnology for decades," said Friedman, citing the development of synthetic biology technology as the product of that private/public partnership. "That happened because the federal government made some key investments across [multiple d
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