In an interview with Polyester Times, Schilling says it is an “exciting time” to be involved in the bioeconomy. “But the biggest challenges are of the industry’s own making and both have led to customer and investor disappointment: under-delivery and over-simplification. Many firms have and continue to promote unrealistic timelines for commercialization and misleading guidance on market size or the time it takes to create new markets; the results are not pretty. Similarly, some firms over-promote the breakthrough potential of a technology that focuses on a piece of the overall problem; the issue is that customers need to deploy whole solutions.”
Schilling adds that Genomatica struggled from 2014–2016 as the timeline to commercialization lagged. However, 2017 proved to be a turning point, with new investors and partners and the startup of the company’s first commercial plant for biobased butanediol.
Looking ahead, the company is targeting biobased polyamide intermediates, nylon products and more traction for bio-BDO and butylene glycol.