The world consumes 4.25 billion tonnes of oil every year. Over half of the oil drilled out of the ground goes towards transport, but the entire sector is moving to decarbonise. However even if the transport sector no longer requires oil, many industries across the economy will still be reliant on extracting fossil fuels. In order for the world to stop drilling for oil we need to find replacements for all its uses, not just in transportation.

The amount of oil used to produce materials is equivalent to what goes towards the automotive industry. Oil is used to produce all sorts of materials, like plastics, beauty products, carpets, clothing, car parts, tyres, toys and much more. Origin Materials is a company founded by John  Bissell and Ryan Smith, two undergraduate chemical engineers back in 2008, and now they have created a process of turning wood chips into carbon negative versions of commonly used materials that previously required petroleum to produce.

Their process has been proven at a small scale, but with orders already coming in from major users of plastics and other materials, Origin Materials are in the process of trying to scale up to meet what they see as a $1 trillion addressable market.

Guests

John Bissell , co-founder & CEO, Origin Materials

The post #221 Turning plants into plastics first appeared on Engineering Matters.