Cargill Dow LLC Bio-Based Products

• Year founded: 1997
• Ownership: Joint venture of Cargill and Dow Chemical
• Headquarters: Minnesota, USA
• Product category: Polymers
• Employees: 200 to 300
• Production capacity: More than 300 million pounds of NatureWorks PLA per year

Cargill Dow LLC, based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, offers a family of polymers derived entirely from annually renewable resources with the cost and performance necessary to compete with traditional fibers and packaging materials. Founded in 1997, the company has achieved this by using a simple process of fermentation, distillation, and polymerization to derive a proprietary polylactide polymer, NatureWorks[1] PLA[2] from field corn. Cargill Dow harvests the carbon stored in simple plant sugars when corn plants photosynthesize. Initially, the corn grain is milled, separating starch from the grain. Unrefined dextrose, in turn, is processed from the starch and is turned into lactic acid using a fermentation process similar to that used by beer producers. Through a condensation process, the cyclic intermediate dimer lactide is formed and then purified through vacuum distillation. Finally, ring-opening polymerization of the lactide is accomplished with a solvent-free melt process, delivering PLA resin.[3]

In April 2002, Cargill Dow LLC opened the world