Michael Saltzberg, the global business director for Biomaterials, will take the stage July 17 at the 2018 BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology. Saltzberg is set to speak to the future of biomaterials – including DuPont’s latest investments in new research and development. 
 
Two other leaders will address the BIO crowds in Philadelphia. Todd Sutton, president of DuPont Tate & Lyle Bio Products, will touch on sustainable and performance-based bioplastics and how his company is addressing the challenges of bringing new bio-based materials to market. Vincent Sewalt – senior director of Product Stewardship & Regulatory – will appear on a panel addressing microbial enzymes in food and feed ingredients. 
 
Saltzberg will be chairing the session entitled – “The Sleeping Giant Awakens: 2,5-Furandicarboxylic Acid” including giving a talk that will look toward the coming impact of bioplastics on the materials and packaging industries. Earlier this year, DuPont Industrial Biosciences and Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) opened the world’s first bio-based furan dicarboxylic methyl ester (FDME) pilot production facility. Combining their respective expertise in chemistry, biomaterials and agricultural value chains, DuPont and ADM developed an innovative and efficient process for turning fructose from cornstarch into FDME, which can be used to create a variety of bio-based chemicals and materials that are ultimately more cost-effective, efficient and sustainable than their fossil fuel-based counterparts.
 
“Our newly-opened plant is the centerpiece of a long-standing partnership that will help bring a greater variety of higher performance, sustainably sourced biomaterials into the lives of consumers,” said Saltzberg. “We are especially excited about what this means for new biobased plastic packaging materials.” Saltzberg will update audiences at BIO on the status of commercialization of FDME, as well as progress made at DuPont on producing high-quality materials such as polyethylene furanoate (PEF) and polytrimethylene furanoate (PTF) for packaging applications from FDME.
 
This year’s BIO World Congress takes place in Philadelphia – a stone’s throw from DuPont’s headquarters in Wilmington, DE, where the company has been located since its founding in 1802. Just last month, DuPont’s Industrial Biosciences (IB) business officially opened the doors of its renovated global business headquarters at the Wilmington location. This new center of technological innovation, known as Building E353, is part of DuPont’s Experimental Station, the source of numerous industry-altering technologies over the decades, from nylon to DuPont Kevlar to Tyvek to IB’s own renewably sourced Sorona.
 
DuPont Sorona polymer contains 37 percent annually renewable plant-based ingredients by weight. It is used primarily in high-performance fiber applications, including textiles for apparel and home, office and automotive interiors, residential and commercial carpeting and automotive mats. One critical component of the renewably sourced material is Bio-PDO, made by DuPont Tate & Lyle Bio Products, a joint venture between DuPont and Tate & Lyle through a fermentation process from corn sugar. As president of the joint venture, Todd Sutton oversees the production of this ingredient, as well as other bio-based performance brands Susterra and Zemea propanediol. 
 
“Our products provide customers across a wide variety of markets and applications with a competitive advantage by offering improved, higher-performing ingredients from a petroleum-free, sustainable and renewable source,” said Sutton, who will chair the session entitled “Sustainable and Performance Based Bioplastics and Biopolymers” as well as highlight key commercial examples of successful innovations in biomaterials during his presentation. 
 
Vincent Sewalt will showcase the diversity of applications for DuPont enzymes on a food-focused panel: “GRAS Conclusions: An Uncompromising Approach to Facilitate Market Access for Safe Food Ingredients from Industrial Biotechnology.” Sewalt has spent the last 10 years at DuPont leading programs in regulatory and safety of industrial biotechnology products used in food, feed and other industrial applications. 
 
“I’m looking forward to providing insights on the GRAS process for Industrial Biotechnology products and providing some counsel on preparing successful GRAS Notifications for the FDA,” said Sewalt. “I think BIO attendees will be interested to learn how our enzymes used as food/feed ingredients are uniquely suited to this process.”
 
DuPont is a Gold Sponsor of the 2018 BIO World Congress and will be hosting the Wednesday, July 18, breakfast plenary entitled, “Biobased Materials Redesigning Consumer Markets and Fashion Trends.”