After gazing out of our office windows, made of plastics from biotechnology, and looking at the parking lot, whose many parts are made of bio-sourced plastics, including the fuel cells that have replaced the internal combustion engines, we realise we are at the beginning of the 'biotechnology century'. Here it is the year 2020 and biological breakthroughs have influenced mankind in key ways over the last 20 years, from raising life expectancies of humans by 10 years to commercial fuel cells using corn stalks as the energy source.

The advancements made by scientists in DNA and RNA research during the 1990's have left no industry untouched. This includes plastics also. The reliance on fossil fuels, which became scarce a few years ago as a source of monomers, has been challenged by cheaper and renewable sources that are more environmental friendly. The traditional chemical plant has met serious competition from green plants. Many monomers are now made via fermentation, using low-cost sugars as the feedback. Some of the commodity monomers are under siege by chemicals extracted from biomass. The once limited list of commercial viable chemical for polymer production has been expanded to include a large number of monomers from nature. The suppliers who had vision in the 1990's and set up bioengineering capabilities are now reaping the benefits globally. These suppliers are displacing established polymer platforms with cost-effective and higher-performing plastics.

We reflect back with pride to the pioneering research performed by companies like DuPont in the late 1990's. That was when scientists leveraged the biotechnology research tools, which were developed to enhance crop traits, for the bioproduction of monomers. The first example of this technology in DuPont was the production of 1,3-propanediol using bacteria. It was known at the time that the terephthalate copolymer using 1,3-propanediol had interesting properties as a fiber. To develop a monomer source of 1,3-propanediol, DuPont formed a research alliance with Genencor International to help produce a commercially viable process. This project required combining conversion pathways from two different bacteria into a single host, which led to the successful one-step conversion of common sugar into 1,3-propanediol.

These break thorough, which helped establish a fundamental understanding of how enzymes function, combined with the ability to manipulate their structures, has resulted in an explosion of novel polymers made via enzymatic control. The use of enzymes for polymerization has drastically altered the landscape of polymer chemistry. Processors can now request specific properties for each application as opposed to making do with what is available. The supplier can tune in the desired properties requested by the processors, through the strategic control of the polymer microstructure. There are now tools to manipulate the backbones of polymers in several areas like:

	Control of microstructures such as tacticity, stereo-chemistry, and crystallinity.
	Precise control of molecular weight and polydispersity.
	Copolymerzation of additives (e. g. flame retardant), antioxidants, and stabilizers, etc.
	Direct attachment of pigments.

The few firms that have integrated biotechnology with polymer science can deliver desired properties on demand. The benefits of this new technology are so overwhelmingly attractive that even the staunchest skeptics are admitting that significant changes to the traditional plastics manufacturing model are imminent. Every aspect of polymer production has been improved in such a way that:

	Processes now run at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, with dramatically reduced hazards.
	Processes are much more environmentally friendly, using aqueous polymerizations with lower waste and energy consumption.
	Capital investments required to build new facilities have been reduced by 60%;
	Capital investments required for capacity expansions have been reduced by 90%;
	Manufacturing flexibility for on-demand production is fully implemented for some classes of polymers.
	Labor and maintenance costs are cut by 60%.
	Compounding to make functionally useful resins as practiced in the late 1990's has been dramatically reduced.
	Energy costs are cut by 80%.