Building the Bioindustrial Manufacturing Workforce

The rapid pace of discovery, innovation, and commercialization of biologically produced commodity chemicals, textiles, energy, materials, and food products of modern society will require more than 1.1 million workers. These high-paying jobs will fuel a projected $4-30 trillion global bioeconomy in t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chemical engineering progress 2022-11, Vol.118 (11), p.41-45
Main Authors: Tubon, Thomas C, DeKloe, Jim
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomass
Biotechnology
Career development planning
Career pathways
Careers
Chemical engineering
Commercialization
Community colleges
Ecosystem biology
Education
Fuels
Horizontal integration
Instructional design
Manufacturing
Operations management
R&D
Raw materials
Research & development
Skills
Supply chains
Sustainable development
Textiles
Training
Workers
Workforce
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Summary:The rapid pace of discovery, innovation, and commercialization of biologically produced commodity chemicals, textiles, energy, materials, and food products of modern society will require more than 1.1 million workers. These high-paying jobs will fuel a projected $4-30 trillion global bioeconomy in the near future. Recent advancements in engineering biology have led to a paradigm shift from petroleum-based chemical manu-facturing to biologically sourced products. Such a shift can impact grand challenges such as climate change, food security, energy independence, and environmental sustainability. An estimated 60% of the materials in the global consumer product supply chain could, in principle, be produced biologically, which emphasizes the importance of commercial-scale engineering and sustainable production of biobased products. Here, Tubon and DeKloe describe a concerted approach to building and sustaining the large and diverse workforce needed to fuel the growing bioeconomy.
ISSN:0360-7275
1945-0710