The Biotechnology Innovation Organization has released a new report on the biobased economy: “Advancing the Biobased Economy: Renewable Chemical Biorefinery Commercialization, Profess and Market Opportunities, 2016 and Beyond.” The report takes a deep dive into the future of biobased products and comes out with some very positive results.
Perhaps one of the most exciting highlights of the report is a list of companies making waves in the space. There are many key algae companies (and Algae Biomass Organization members) prominently featured, including Heliae, Joule, LanzaTech, Matrix, Cellana, Sapphire, Terravia and others. In other words, algae is key cog in the biobased space.
McKinsey & Co. estimates that there were $252 billion in sales of biobased products in 2012; a number that is expected to grow to as large as $375-$441 billion by 2020. Over the same span of time, sales of renewable chemicals are expected to grow from 9 percent to 11 percent of the global chemical sales total.
The report highlights certain policies that have had an effect in producing that result, including both the Renewable Fuel Standard and the 2014 Farm Bill. According to the report, the former opened discussions and policy development in renewable chemicals and biobased products, while the latter extended loan guarantee eligibility to renewable chemicals and biobased products producers—key steps to advancing these new technologies.
For more about the report, visit BIO’s website.