Non oil-based organic chemical production : the Roquette Frères' challenge

Roquette Frères was originally a company which manufactured starch for the textile industry. Today it employs 6,000 people, has a turnover of 2.5 billion Euros, and has a presence in about one hundred countries. Roquette produces glucose polymers from potatoes, wheat, maize and peas. These polymers may be used in both the nutrition/health industry and in the plant-based or 'green' chemical industry. With the depletion of fossil resources, the prospects for the biomass-based organic chemical industry - which will gradually replace the petrochemical industry - are huge. The most important factor is to identify correctly the molecules which are likely to be the first to 'change over' from the petrochemical industry to the organic-based chemical industry, by taking into consideration technical, functional and economic factors. However, Marc Roquette is already looking even further into the future : in 2100, and provided that energy is abundant and cheap (as is predicted by thermonuclear energy), it will perhaps be micro algae which will produce a large part of our plastics… and even comprise what we eat.