Farm & Ranch Guide: North Dakota's Ag Newspaper

As she drives a tractor across a corn field hauling corn from the combine, Pam Johnson says ethanol might be the beginning of the bioeconomy's future.

As a Floyd County farmer and chairwoman of the National Corn Growers Association Research and Business Development Joint Action Team, Johnson says ethanol is the first product that might point to the direction of the bioeconomy and a farmer's role in it.

Just like oil fueling the tractor, higher oil prices will likely fuel the switch to more bio-based products.

Recently, oil topped $93 per barrel. It took higher oil prices to trigger the excitement for biofuels ethanol and biodiesel.

However, the bioeconomy likely will go past ethanol, she predicts.

Emmetsburg, Iowa, farmer Jim Stillman, a United Soybean Board director who sits on the new uses committee, says most of the new uses for soybeans are in products that were made out of oil, such as plastic.

“We are seeing a lot of new uses,” he notes.

Stillman says the latest new use from soybeans is seat parts for the 2008 Ford Mustang.

Other new uses of soybeans include making plastic pieces for cars and tractors, the backing of carpet, spray foam insulation and soy lubricants.

One of the new uses for corn, other than ethanol, is polylactic acid or “PLA,” which is being used to make plastic bottles and cups.

Other new corn uses include bio-PDO, which can be made into either engine coolants or used in fabrics.

The move to a bioeconomy likely will come as industrial chemicals switch from oil-based chemicals to plant-based materials.

Stillman says 500 million pounds of industrial solvents are made out of oil. If soybeans or corn gets a fraction of that market, it will be a good size market, he adds.

Johnson says there is research being done on isosorbide, which is an industrial chemical from wet mill corn processing. The chemical might have application as an additive in the making of sunscreens and solvents.

She says some of the research involves the potential market for the chemical along with production methods.

Some of the research is looking at ways to make farmers benefit from the bioeconomy, Johnson says. One of the ideas is to see if the technology can be added to ethanol plants farmers are invested in.

That also would help diversify those plants to add additional products from the three main products they produce: ethanol, distillers grains and carbon dioxide.

If the technology cannot be added to current ethanol plants, farmers and other community members might be able to invest in processing plants similar to the ethanol model.

Other investors are getting involved in the bioeconomy.

Last week, ADM announced it was forming an industrial chemical division that would work on making chemicals from renewable feedstocks.

Company officials say they expect to commercialize replacements for petroleum-derived chemicals in the short term and longer term they expect to develop new chemicals.

One of the chemicals they will make is propylene glycol, a byproduct from glycerol, which is made during the biodiesel process.

Overall, Johnson and Stillman are bullish on the bioeconomy, but they warn it will take time to build it.

“We often talk about ethanol is a 30-year-old overnight sensation,” says Johnson. “Maybe this time it won't take 30 years.”

However, Johnson says the ethanol boom might offer a glimmer of what the bioecnomoy will look like.

“We aren't going to get in this (bioeconomy) overnight,” Stillman says. “I look for more and more new uses coming.”