This week, I took part in a roundtable discussion about biobased products with my colleagues Kathleen Roberts and Dr. Rich Engler. Over the last several years, there has been a significant trend towards the use of renewable, biobased chemicals. Although these chemicals often have similar, if not identical, functionalities as the non-renewable, fossil-based chemical that they are intended to replace, there are a number of regulatory challenges in bringing these to market. In this conversation, we discuss what these commercial challenges are, why the EPA has, in most cases, “pre market approval authority” over the commercialization of these chemicals, and get down into the science of what exactly constitutes a “biobased” chemical anyway.

I am excited to have Rich and Kathleen on this episode. Rich managed EPA’s Green Chemistry program when he was at EPA and has considerable experience with EPA’s review of biobased chemical substances from a TSCA perspective. Kathleen is Vice President of B&C Consortia Management and manages the Biobased and Renewable Products Advocacy Group (BRAG), which has as one of its primary goals aligning regulatory frameworks for biobased and more traditional fossil-based chemical substances.

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