Sustainable, Scalable, Production of Commodity/Specialty Chemical, 2-Phenylethanol, in Transgenic Poplar: Phase 1

There is an urgent need in the U.S. for renewable, domestic, supplies of fine/specialty and commodity chemicals, biofuels, and materials currently obtained from dwindling petroleum based resources. For example, various aromatics [e.g., styrenes, ethyl benzene, 2-phenylethanol (PEA)] are currently annually produced synthetically as commodity chemicals from our finite petrochemical resource. Frequently, such production processes have considerable drawbacks that include harsh synthetic conditions, formation of undesirable side-products, and use of non-renewable petrochemicals. Herein, we wish to build on our existing technology to produce a highly valuable chemical, phenylethanol (PEA), from transgenic hybrid poplar. The research and development needed for this Phase 1 study is to thus develop the necessary technologies to isolate PEA for subsequent commercial production. We consider that this approach will bring forward the long-awaited commercial platform for hybrid poplar to produce valuable chemicals currently either imported from foreign countries, or obtained from the petrochemical industry. Success here then opens up massive opportunities to produce a large range of highly valuable fine/specialty and commodity chemicals in a renewable and sustainable manner.