Market biobased products

Other companies showing strong interest in the production of biobased succinic acid and its derivatives are Mitsubishi Chemical and Ajinomoto Company, Inc., which have agreed to collaboratively develop a biobased process to convert sugars into succinic acid. These companies plan to construct a succinic acid plant in Japan with an initial capacity of 30,000 metric t/yr (MT) by 2006 (42). Table 4 shows the current market estimates for the fossil-based chemicals, as well as 2020 market estimates for the biobased products potentially based on biobased succinic acid. 

The chemical and lubricant markets represent an enormous opportunity for biobased products, but many obstacles must be overcome on the way to commercialization. To gain acceptance and supplant products made from petroleum, industrial bioproducts will need to be able to compete in terms of both cost and performance advances in biotechnology will play a key role in surmounting these economic and technical barriers. Given the size of the potential markets and the considerable research under way, the future looks bright for a biobased economy. 

Another area is the production of chemical intermediates from renewable feedstocks. Cargill-Dow and Dupont are just two of the companies beginning to market biobased polymers and plastics to replace petroleum based polymers. Again, the fermentation fundamentals originally developed for food manufacturing continue to apply to a wide variety of products. 

I 8 Biobased Products-Market Needs and Opportunities Table 8.2 Volumes of natural products [1 ]. 

The area of biobased products represents a major new market opportunity for domestically grown biomass resources [1]. It will be a new source of revenue for not only those who produce the feedstocks, but also for the farmers and others who are involved in the production of biobased products themselves. Continued research can significantly increase opportunities for biobased products, expand... 

In Europe, the Lead Market Initiative, which was launched in 2006 as the European poHcy for six important sectors, one of which is biobased products, aims to facilitate an early adoption of technological innovation on various markets [36], It is well known that research and innovation for such products has reached a stage where products are ready for market introduction. However, RRMs were only used in small market niches and mostly manufactured... 

The foUowtng sections present short summaries on results for the product groups of packaging, building products, and lubricants, the latter being a large market for biobased products since several years as well. 

Currently, markets for bioproducts are wide-ranging, including polymers, lubricants, solvents, adhesives, herbicides, and pharmaceuticals and their production volume is estimated at several inQUon tons per year. Total production in these markets is in the hundreds of millions of tons therefore, the growth opportunities for biobased products are enormous - so the market analysis in Chapter 8. While bioproducts have already penetrated most of these markets to some extent, new products and technologies are emerging with the potential to further enhance performance, cost-competitiveness, and market share, so the optimistic outlook. 

The overall objective of this chapter is to show how the interest in biopolymers and other biobased products and their application on the market has grown progressively... 

This chapter will analyse the main policy initiatives recently undertaken at EU level to foster the innovation capacity in Europe, reaching the goal of building a Knowledge Biobased Economy, and to favour the market entry of new and innovative biobased products. Many of the initiatives and plans adopted by the EU in the bioeconomy sector have tried to involve the main stakeholders, i.e., the industry sector (with a strong focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SME)), European associations, European technology platforms and researchers. 

Establish a high-level advisory group, including Member States and industry, to assist the thematic interservice task force on biobased products in the follow-up of the present action plan and including in the analysis the impact of legislative proposals in relevant policy domains on the development of markets for biobased products... 

Although the Ad-hoc Advisory Group has developed a series of recommendations to stimulate market uptake and development, these measures still have to be implemented. At the European level, in fact, a policy framework to support biobased materials is still missing. As a result, up to now biobased products have not benefitted, for instance, from tax incentives or other supports. 

Biobased products were, in fact, one of the six sectors included in the 2007 Lead Market Initiative of the European Commission (EC), with the aim of fostering the emergence of such lead markets with high economic and societal value, focusing on areas where coordinated policymaking can speed up market development [1]. More recently, in February 2012, the EC launched a new Bioeconomy Strategy [2],... 

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