DuPont to Make Products Using Corn Syrup

Chemical maker DuPont Co. on Tuesday said it plans to begin manufacturing some of its products from bio-based materials rather than petroleum in 2007. Not unlike everyday consumers, industries are feeling the pinch of higher oil prices and looking for less expensive, homegrown forms of renewable energy to offset raw material and manufacturing costs.

From AFX News Limited

NEW YORK — Chemical maker DuPont Co. on Tuesday said it plans to begin manufacturing some of its products from bio-based materials rather than petroleum in 2007.

Not unlike everyday consumers, industries are feeling the pinch of higher oil prices and looking for less expensive, homegrown forms of renewable energy to offset raw material and manufacturing costs.

DuPont said it plans to use a patented and proprietary process to make new, high-performance resins and elastomer products from corn sugar. DuPont calls the key ingredient for the process Bio-PDO.

The products would go to automotive, electrical and electronic and other industrial markets, the company said. Performance characteristics are as good or better than petrochemical, they said.

In addition, DuPont said the manufacturing process would require 40 percent less energy, or save the equivalent of 10 million gallons of gasoline annually. It plans to produce the products at its Louden, Tenn., plant when it comes on line later this year.

DuPont said it has a corporate goal of deriving 25 percent of its revenue from non-depletable resources by 2010.

Shares of DuPont fell $1.02, or 2.4 percent, to $41.02 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has traded in a 52-week range of $37.60 to $45.75.

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