DuPont Industrial Biosciences and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) have collaborated to develop a process to produce furan dicarboxylic methyl ester (FDME) from fructose. The approach could have a range of applications, the companies say.

The U.S. Department of Energy has identified 12 building block materials that can be converted into bio-based chemicals with high value and/or high performance across a range of material applications. FDME is a highly pure derivative of furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), one of those building block materials.

The DuPont-ADM process begins with HMF, a resource derived from raw materials such as cellulose, starch or sucrose. The method converts HMF to FDCA with an aqueous solution comprising HMF. The process then combines the HMF with an oxygen source in the presence of a homogenous metal salt catalyst. This oxidizes the HMF in the presence of the catalyst to form FDCA, from which the molecule may be recovered.

The molecule is predicted to be game changing in the sense that it could create materials that are 100 percent renewable and recyclable, and that will touch a wide range of applications. While the molecule itself is not new, the process to produce FDME is said to be more efficient and simpler, and produces higher yields. With the commercial availability of FDME, the companies foresee applications in packaging, textiles, engineering plastics and more. FDME has the potential to replace petroleum-based materials as it exhibits the same or enhanced performance as existing plastics, such as PET.

The partnership capitalizes on ADM’s experience in developing fructose and in carbohydrate chemistry and on DuPont’s expertise in chemistry, material development, and biotechnology. The team is now developing polytrimethylene furandicarboxylate (PTF) with FDME. With Americans consuming 50 billion water bottles per year, the pressure to develop a renewable material for these bottles is clear. However, there may be even more advantages: because the new material is created in a single facility, the water bottle could have a lower carbon footprint in its future.

The collaboration will begin with an integrated plant in Decatur, Ill., that will produce 60 tons of FDME per year for demonstration. The plant is the initial step to offer customers ample product quantities to test and research for their own applications.