This may be an example of developments that pessimistic people, as some here tend to be, wouldn’t anticipate.
“Coskata, together with its strategic collaborator Total Petrochemicals, is also developing “microorganism-based technology” to produce propanol, a three-carbon building block for making propylene, from the same feedstocks the company would use to produce cellulosic ethanol. Over time, according to Coskata, it expects to eventually expand its platform to produce valuable four, five and six carbon chain chemicals, adding that it has already demonstrated at lab-scale the production of propanol, butanol, butanediol, hexanol, organic acids and certain fatty acids.
As a result of its low-cost syngas fermentation process, Coskata sees market growth for its biochemicals, stating, “We are able to immediately address the 23 billion gallon global fuel-grade ethanol market,” the company stated in its S-1 filing. “Our cellulosic ethanol will also address the 1.7 billion gallon global industrial ethanol market and can be converted into ethylene, a $140 billion market. In the future, our propanol production technology, combined with alcohol dehydration technology to produce propylene from propanol, under development by Total Petrochemicals together with IFP Energies Nouvelles & Axens, is expected to target the $100 billion global propylene market.””
http://ethanolproducer.com/articles/8433/coskata-files-registration-statement-for-proposed-ipo