DuPont doesn't expect shoppers to balk at a fabric produced from bacteria excretions. Over the years, consumers have proved remarkably willing to wear all sorts of unexpected things, from Teflon ties to recycled-tire sandals to dresses adorned with sequins fashioned from aluminum cans. Andanyone who sweated out polyester's early years in the 1970s will probably prefer 3GT, because it is water-resistant yet also far more "breathable" than ordinary polyester.

Still it is taking 3GT a long time to reach the market A version of the fabric, produced in a costly chemical procedure, has languished in the lab since the 1940s. Every decade or so, DuPont and other companies have taken whacks at devising cheaper chemical manufacturing methods, only to conclude they weren't cheap enough to be viable for making a consumer product.

A tantalising solution emerged in 1995. A team of DuPont biologists combined genetic codes of two micro-organisms and created a new kind of E.coli bacteria, which are genetic engineering's guinea pigs because of their simple DNA. A kind of super bug, the bacteria eat corn and excrete a milky-looking liquid known as 3G. Adding terephthalic acid forms a resin, 3GT, that can be spun into fabric for dresses and skirts.

Meanwhile, DuPont and at least one competitor, ShellChemicals, a unit of Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Cos. of the Netherlands, have found a more efficient way to make 3GT using chemicals. The chemical version could start appearing in sweaters, suits and jackets sold at major retailers within a year. DuPont and Shell now are racing to complete new plants designed for the chemical process. DuPont envisions yet another new factory -- to be built somewhere next to a cornfield -- where low-wage bacteria would churn out even cheaper 3GT in its biological form.

Some fabric buyers are thrilled. "I would love to be the first to bring this to the market," says Kady Dalrymple, vice-president of design at Limited Inc.'s Express unit. "Our customers want clothes that travel well and are easy to care for, and I think this fabric would work fantastically."

Eventually, DuPont plans to pick a catchier name for 3GT before introducing it to the world with a massive marketing campaign. Dalrymple, for one, sees no image problem for 3GT, despite its origins in a vat of oozepopulated by E.coli bacteria-albeit not the kind that contaminates hamburgers. "Silk isn't bug poop, but it's close enough, and that's still considered a luxurious fabric," she points out.

DuPont and a partner, Genencor, a Rochester, New York, joint venture of Eastman Chemical Co., of Tennessee, and Cultor Ltd. of Finland, last year jointly won a patent for the biological manufacturing process of 3GT. The product isn't expected to meet with much demand for industrial products made of polyester: After all, stretchiness and silkiness aren't sought after qualities in gaskets and carpeting.

But 3GT is expected to have a big impact on apparel. Sales of polyester for apparel totalled some $5 billion in 1996, according to figures from SRI Consulting, of California. DuPont worries that sales will slow from their current 6 per cent to 8 per cent annual growth rate as a result of economic turmoil in Asia, where much of the world's low-cost polyester is produced.

"The problem is, Asian consumers can't afford tobuy clothes like they could before, but the plants there aren't slowing down," says Ray Miller, manager of DuPont's 3GT venture. "A lot of that polyester's being sold almost at cost." A new, higher-quality polyester could be a welcome entrant in a market where a glut of inferior product has depressed prices, he says.

Back in 1993, DuPont researchers began looking for a biological way to make 3GT. They already knew that some micro-organisms naturally could convert glycerol -- a syrupy liquid used in skin lotions and food preservatives -- into 3G. But they concluded glycerol, selling for more than $1 a pound, was too expensive to buy. Many micro-organisms, they realised, produce glycerol by converting glucose-a cheap, natural sugar. That put them on a hunt for a single micro-organism capable of doing both, eating sugar and excreting 3G.

By 1995, two DuPont researchers, Vasantha Nagarajan and Charlie Nakamura, came up with such a micro-organism by combining DNA from two types of bacteria. Now, a group ofscientists in Wilmington is working on refining the process and producing substantial quantities of the 3G juice efficiently.

The gene jockeys develop pinhead-size colonies of the genetically engineered E.coli bacteria and send them to engineers on slides. The engineers scrape off each colony into a test tube filled with liquid, where it grows for several days or weeks. The test tube's contents are then dropped into a three-litre fermenter. Tubes feed a constant supply of glucose and water into the container, while a fan at the bottom agitates the water to shoot in oxygen. As the the bugs multiply and feed, the juice in the container turns milky. After a few days, the concoction takes on the appearance of skim milk. It is teeming with more micro-organisms than there are people in the world.

DuPont has a lot riding on the process. It is accelerating its plans to expand in the "lifesciences" area, and last month announced it would issue a tracking stock, or separate class of shares, to reflect the value ofoperations in the segment. Two weeks ago, DuPont said it would buy the 80 per cent of seedcorn giant Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc. that it didn't already own for $7.7 billion. A major byproduct of that deal: a virtually endless supply of food for the micro-organisms that excrete 3G.

The dozen or so fermenters DuPont is experimenting with don't produce enough of a base to fill even a small closet with dresses. Some issues still to be worked out: How to pump enough oxygen into the tank to feed a multitude of the bugs? And will the micro-organisms be hardy enough to survive slight, unavoidable fluctuations in the quality of the corn syrup they are fed?

By early next year, DuPont expects to enter the project's pilot stage, making about 3,000 litres of the 3G bug juice a day-enough to turn into windbreakers for the entire research team. Bringing organic 3GT to the market within five years is a realistic goal, company representatives say. "We're probably 50-0 of the way there so far," says Robert Dorsch,director of DuPont's biotechnology development.

By the end of 2003, DuPont hopes to have a commercial plant capable of producing up to 300,000 litre a day, enough to support an entire product line.

The Asian Wall Street Journal