The Next Big Thing For The Petrochemical Industry

Petrochemicals is a lucrative market sector for countries and oil companies which have been hit hard by falling oil prices. A new Lux Research study points to synthetic biology (synbio) as a breakthrough in speeding up the development of petrochemicals into new and profitable channels.  Synbio could be getting a lot of interest as investors look to alternatives — but there are other non-oil and gas energy sources to follow as well, including hydrogen. One of these new solutions is creating a profit center out of offering the oil and gas industry a new way to dispose of its hydrogen sulfide. Lux Research, an intelligence firm tracking emerging technologies, recommends using synbio for the creation of specialty chemicals, where numerous value propositions like cost savings for producers make it even more appealing. The petrochemical sector has seen numerous failures when trying to use fermentation capabilities to produce new products for commodities, Lux cautions.