In the twenty-first century, the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, better known as the DuPont Company focused on science with a diverse set of interests and products. It operates in more than ninty countries with corporate headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, and employs more than 60,000 people worldwide, including 10,000 scientists and engineers. In 2012, it was the world’s third largest chemical company based on market capitalization. The company typically introduces more than 2000 products and patent applications each year, and lists its involvement in fifteen main industries. These include agriculture, automotive, building and construction, chemicals, electronics, energy, food and beverage, government and public sector, health care and medical, marine, mining, packaging and printing, plastics, rail, and safety and protection.

Over the past decade, DuPont has acquired several new commercial interests while divesting itself of others. Among the most significant of these transactions included the 2004 sale of INVISTA, formerly DuPont Textiles & Interiors, to subsidiaries of Koch Industries, Inc. for $4.4 billion. At the time of its sale, INVISTA was the largest integrated fiber and intermediates business in the world and included well-known brands and trademarks such as Lycra, Stainmaster, Antron nylon, and Thermolite. In other deals, DuPont bought Danish biotechnology company, Danisco, in 2011, and in 2012 the company acquired full ownership of soy-based ingredients company, Solae LLC, from Bunge Limited. In 2013, the Carlyle Group bought DuPont Performance Coatings and rebranded it as Axalta Coating Systems.

The company has recently been focusing some of its efforts on sustainable energy and chemicals produced from renewable resources. In 2003, DuPont partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory to develop a “bio-refinery” which uses corn and other renewable resources to produce fuels and chemicals. As a result of these efforts, in 2007 the company opened a $100M facility in Loudon, Tennessee which produces 1,3-propanediol (Bio-PDO) from corn sugar. The biodegradable chemical is used in cosmetics, liquid detergents, and is utilized in the production of specialty polymers such as DuPont Sorona and DuPont Cerenol. The Sorona polymer was a major development focus for the company in the early 2000s, and it is currently marketed as a renewably-sourced and stain-resistant fiber used in carpets, apparel, and automotive mats and carpets.

Other company foci include global food security and the production of protection and safety equipment. The industrial biosciences divisions focus on research and development in enzyme technology, materials science, and bioprocessing. The building and construction divisions produce well-known brands such as Tyvek, SentryGlas, and KEVLAR for residential and commercial job sites. The company is also the world’s largest producer of the white pigment, titanium dioxide.

DuPont Pioneer, the company’s agricultural interest, is the largest U.S. producer of hybrid seeds for agriculture and is a major producer of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Among the genes engineered into seeds are those which resist particular herbicides and various insects. Another significant product from DuPont Pioneer is the Plenish soybean, which has been engineered to contain the highest oleic acid content of any commercial soybean product by blocking the formation of enzymes which would typically result in the transformation of oleic acid into saturated fats.