USDA Promotes Biobased Chemicals

Biobased products, including chemicals, are a growing sector of the U.S. economy, concludes a contractor-prepared report released by the Department of Agriculture. Much of the growth has been fueled by government policies and industry sustainability initiatives, the analysis finds. The report explores emerging opportunities for combining agriculture and manufacturing to make products from sustainable biological materials and to create U.S. jobs. One of the studies cited by the report predicts that biobased chemicals will constitute more than 10% of the chemicals market by next year. Another cited study finds the potential to produce two-thirds of all chemicals from biobased materials, which in turn would go into more than 50,000 products and represent a $1 trillion global market. The analysis preludes a more in-depth economic study expected in coming months from USDA’s BioPreferred program, which aims to increase federal agencies’ use of biobased products.