BY MIKE BOYER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A Cincinnati-based research project to develop a new family of "green"-based chemicals to create products ranging from lower-cost plastics to moisture-resistant adhesives has won funding from the U.S. Commerce Department.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Advanced Technology Program will provide about half the estimated $5.9 million cost of the three-year research program proposed by Henkel Corp.'s Cincinnati oleochemicals business and GE Corporate Research & Development in Schenectady, N.Y.
Henkel and GE will supply the remainder of the funding to develop a fermentation-based synthesis process. It will create commercial quantities of chemicals made from plant oils and beef tallow which can be used to make plastics and other value-added products.
The process would replace the petroleum-based chemicals now used in the plastics, chemical, fragrance and farming industries, the companies said. The new technology could generate more than $400 million in annual potential benefits to producers and consumers of the chemicals.
It would also be more environmentally friendly.
"Prototype biocatalysts and a microbe-mediated fermentation process already have been developed, but major challenges must be overcome to engineer an entire metabolic pathway for use a practical tool," NIST said in a statement.
Ron Wilson, senior manager of Henkel's applied biotechnology group, said Henkel has produced the bio-engineered chemicals in small quantities, but the research is designed to make the process commercially viable.
Eventually, he said, the research would lead to a pilot plant to produce the chemicals in commercial quantities.
The Henkel award was one of 79 industrial research projects selected by NIST for partial funding this year. The Advanced Technology Program annually contributes partial funding to high-risk industrial research projects that promise important payoffs.
The Henkel project was one of four projects funded out of 31 submitted to NIST in the area of catalysis and biocatalysis technology.
This is also the first time that Henkel, which has competed for NIST research awards in the past, has been successful, Mr. Wilson said.
"This is a very prestigious award and very competitive," he said.
About 20 researchers at Henkel's office and plant in Winton Place, and a number of other researchers for GE, which is major manufacturer of plastics, and five other subcontractors will be involved in the project.
