At an investor conference held in New York this week, DuPont Bio-Based Materials vice-president and general manager John Ranieri said the world needed new sources of clean energy immediately.

Last month, DuPont announced the creation of a biofuels business unit to deliver commercial products and pipeline opportunities to the biofuels market.

The business includes the Pioneer Industry Select program, which is marketing 135 corn hybrids to improve the yield potential of grain ethanol production; the Integrated BioRefinery research program to develop technologies to convert entire corn plants and other cellulosic plant material into ethanol; and a research pipeline to accelerate the commercialisation of alternative biofuels technologies.

DuPont sales to biofuels markets have more than doubled over the past five years to more than $US300 million.

Ranieri said that over the past decade, agricultural biotechnology had emerged as a high value-driving technology in major crops such as corn, soybeans and cotton.

“Given growing market needs for energy alternatives, energy security and environmental sustainability, we believe the growth opportunities from Pioneer's position as a leader in seed genomics can begin to meet the growing demand for agricultural feedstocks that will be used to create new bio-based products," Ranieri said.

DuPont owns one of the world's largest patent estates in biotechnology, covering both the rapidly growing agricultural sector and the emerging industrial sectors, and currently ranks second among patent-holders in this area.