We expect our process technologies to enable economically advantaged production of target chemicals, considering both capital and operating costs, relative to conventional petroleum-based processes run at chemical manufacturing plants throughout the world.

We believe that plants using our production processes will offer three primary economic advantages relative to conventional plants:

•  lower capital costs per pound of chemical product for similarly sized plants;
•  lower production costs for similarly sized plants; and
•  the ability to cost-effectively operate plants at a smaller scale.

Our processes are also designed to deliver enhanced sustainability and a reduced environmental footprint versus conventional approaches.

Based on performance achieved at laboratory, pilot and demonstration scale, we believe our first manufacturing process for BDO will be economically advantaged at commercial scale as compared to conventional petroleum-based production processes.  For BDO, our initial processes will use conventional sugars, such as sucrose from sugarcane or sugar beets, and dextrose from corn or cassava. We expect our economic advantage to continue to improve over time as a result of process technology improvements and our anticipated ability to utilize other renewable feedstocks with the potential for even lower costs, such as sugars from cellulosic biomass and synthesis gas, or syngas, from municipal solid waste.