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The Emergence of a “Renewable Feedstock-Based” Chemical Industry

Douglas C. Cameron PhD '87: October 1, 2004; Running Time: 1:00:20

About the Lecture

About the Lecture

If the future once lay in plastics, as the film “The Graduate” claimed, today the watchword may be “feedstocks.” This term includes corn, wheat, soy, sunflower, rapeseed (canola)—the array of carbohydrates and proteins growing in fields across the planet. The news, as Douglas Cameron makes clear, is that these crops no longer serve just as staples for animal and human diets, but as the basis for a “revolution in the chemical industry.” Cameron’s company, Cargill, is exploring a host of biotech applications for carbohydrates, fats and proteins found in common crops. For instance, they’re attempting to convert a plastic derivative of lactic acid (derived from fermented starch) into inexpensive polymers for medical implants. Another application: polylactide fibers that not only give comfort to clothing but provide high wicking power. Cameron also sees soy and vegetable oils as a promising industrial “platform.” Cargill envisions transforming them for use in engines, as lubricants, hydraulic and transformer fluids, replacing environmentally unfriendly chemicals. If industry can find effective conversion methods, grains and legumes may emerge as primary sources of fuel, key ingredients in drugs and diet supplements, clothing and paper products, and as heightened versions of themselves—more nutritious food for people and animals.

Lecture Details

Location: 66-110

About the Speaker

Douglas C. Cameron PhD '87

Director of Biotechnology Biotechnology Development Center Cargill, Inc.

Douglas C. Cameron leads molecular biology and metabolic engineering research and development at Cargill. From 1986-1998, Cameron was a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and an affiliate in the Molecular Biology Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1996 he was a guest professor in the Institute for Biotechnology at the ETH in Zurich, Switzerland. From 1979-1981 Cameron held the position of Biochemical Engineer at Advanced Harvesting Systems, a plant biotechnology company funded by International Harvester. Cameron is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). He is on the editorial boards of Metabolic Engineering and Biomacromolecules. Cameron serves on the Minnesota Governor's Bioscience Council and the board of directors of Minnesota Biotechnology Industry Organization. He is a member of the MIT Biological Engineering visiting committee and on the managing board of the newly formed Society for Biological Engineering. Cameron is also a Consulting Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. He has a B.S.E. in biomedical engineering in 1979 from Duke University, and a Ph.D. in biochemical engineering in 1986 from MIT.