Delivering Bio-Based Fuel from Feedstock
Thousands of common industrial and consumer products are manufactured with the chemical propylene glycol. Scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory discovered a viable way to deliver propylene glycol from renewable feedstock, including glycerin byproducts. Decatur, IL-based company Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) licensed that technology and in 2010 completed construction and commissioning of its full-scale production facility for the sole purpose of commercializing the process. The new facility has 200 million pounds annual production capacity, and achieved full operational status in March 2011. It is the only facility producing bio-based industrial propylene glycol from renewable sources in the United States.
Transcript
00:00:00 [Music] paint printer ink cartridges Plastics Cosmetics these are a few of the thousands of common industrial and consumer products manufactured using a chemical called propylene glycol each year more than 2 billion pounds of petroleum are consumed to meet the current demand for the chemical now a new process developed by researchers at
00:00:28 Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Rich in Washington offers a commercially proven cost-effective way to make propylene glycol from renewable sources development of the Innovative process began in the early 2000s with a series of collaborations that resulted in a new set of catalysts and the discovery that glycerol could be converted to propylene glycol this meant that what was once
00:00:51 made from a petroleum based process could be produced entirely using a renewable feed stock raw materials such as corn sugar cane and soy Archer Daniels Midland company a global leader in agricultural processing teamed with pnnl researchers to optimize the Catalyst for commercial applications after validating the concept ADM licensed the technology with plans to
00:01:16 commercially produce the chemical solely from renewable sources in 2010 ADM completed construction and commissioning of our glyos plant here in decada Illinois the plant has a capacity of 100,000 mric tons third party Studies have also shown that our product has a 61% greenhouse gas reduction in comparison to the petroleum analog this allows our customers to reduce their
00:01:41 carbon footprint the new multi-million dollar facility is the first of many expected to follow significantly reducing petroleum use in the production of industrial propylene glycol today the ADM and pnnl collaboration continues as both organizations Forge ahead to Pioneer new ways of responsibly producing valuable chemicals that respect the earth and its inhabitants
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