CSIRO’s expertise in plant, insect and molecular sciences will help position Australia in the growing bioeconomy.

Australia in the emerging Bioeconomy and the Crop Biofactories Initiative

The Crop Biofactories Initiative aims to develop technologies for novel industrial compounds from genetically modified non-food grain crops.

• 1 April 2008 | Updated 14 October 2011

• The growing bio-economy
• Australia’s challenge
• The Crop Biofactories Initiative
• GRDC’s involvement

The growing bio-economy

There is significant global momentum around the emergence of a 21st century bio-based economy. This is being driven by the increasing pressure on global production systems from the complex and interwoven issues of population growth, climate change and the availability of non-renewable resources.

The issue of security of supply for crude oil supply for transport fuel and industrial feedstocks is made even more complex by:

• Kyoto obligations
• ensuring a sustainable economic prosperity
• balance of trade considerations.

Companies around the world are now investing heavily in technologies to identify, develop and process cheap, reliable and sustainable sources of bio-based raw materials.

Australia’s challenge

Australia is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change and, despite its geographical size, faces challenges based on land and water availability and per capita energy demand.

Australia has a world class innovation and research capacity and highly efficient agricultural production systems. These will be challenged by emerging global policy and industry forces around the emerging bioeconomy.

The Crop Biofactories Initiative

The Crop Biofactories Initiative (CBI) in Australia is a jointly funded initiative between CSIRO, and the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC).

This 12-year research initiative aims to add value to the Australian agricultural and the chemical industries by developing technologies for novel industrial compounds from genetically modified non-food grain crops.

CBI plays an important role in addressing the (re)emergence of bio-derived feedstocks for the chemicals and polymer industries. The current focus of CBI is on three key areas:

• Industrial Oils
• Complex Monomers
• Protein Biopolymers.

GRDC’s involvement

GRDC, through its participation in CBI, aims to grow the value of the Australian grains industry by diversifying into new markets with higher margins for growers such as industrial chemicals.

The GRDC support for an Australian crop biofactories industry will help ensure that it:

• is accessible to a range of broadacre Australian crops
• addresses the large and expanding areas of the global chemical industry by developing new products
• provides quality new products whose value and volume will offset up-front development costs
• generates Intellectual Property (IP) that benefits Australian grain growers.

Read more about CSIRO research in Biotechnology.