Soy checkoff commits to expanding industrial uses for soy
Truck grease. Tires. Foam seats.
This might seem like a list of things you find at a car dealership, but there’s more to it than that. These items also share a key component.
Soy.
Often referred to as the miracle crop, the soybean provides a sustainable source of protein and oil worldwide. Found in adhesives, coatings and printing inks, lubricants, plastics and specialty products, soybeans help make products more renewable and environmentally friendly while maintaining, and sometimes exceeding, performance.
The soy checkoff continues to support innovative research that leads to the development and commercialization of sustainable products that contain soy. This increases and diversifies demand for U.S. soy, ultimately bringing profit opportunities back to U.S. soybean farmers.
Finding new markets increases demand
In the 1980s, the printing industry wanted to look for a replacement for petroleum-based ink.
Soy-based ink fit the bill and even enhanced the color in newspapers, while lowering printing costs. Thanks in part to efforts by the American Soybean Association, soybean oil became the printing standard for newspapers and industry.
Soon after, researchers discovered the same benefits that made soy ink more environmentally friendly and cost effective also worked in other products. This set off a chain of new ideas by researchers in a variety of industries.
It also launched the checkoff’s commitment to support the discovery of new uses for soy which has helped increase industrial demand from 14 million bushels of U.S. soy in 2003 to more than 111 million bushels a decade later.
“You never know where the next great market for soybean derivatives will come from,” says Lewis Bainbridge, soy checkoff farmer-leader from South Dakota.
The checkoff has helped bring hundreds of soy-based products to the market, including formaldehyde-free adhesives used in wood paneling, coatings with low volatile organic compounds and biodiesel.
Discovering these new uses for soy has increased demand by almost 700 percent in a decade…and the numbers keep growing each year.
“By doing our homework and partnering with companies that share our commitment to developing sustainable soy-based products, we’re confident that industrial sales of U.S. soy will keep growing,” says Bainbridge. “That growth will continue to pay great dividends on our checkoff investment.”
Great minds lead to great profit opportunities
Checkoff-supported Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) meetings give industry partners an opportunity to come together and share their expertise. The knowledge gained from these think tanks contributes to the creation of hundreds of soy-based products currently on the shelves of local retail stores.
“I was amazed to learn what researchers are doing with oil and meal,” says checkoff farmer-leader Jim Domagalski, a soybean farmer from Columbus, Michigan. “It was an eye opener to attend TAP meetings and see how a discovery by one company can turn soy into an entirely new material.”
Initial research investments by the checkoff pay dividends when companies adopt and adapt them to create new products and applications.
For example, checkoff-supported research at Pittsburgh State University in Kansas led to the discovery of a new version of soy polyols in 2005.
In 2008, Ford Motor Company used soy polyols to create foam seats in the Mustang. Soy foam is now in all of the vehicles it manufactures in North America, and Ford researchers continue to experiment with other soy derivatives as part of Ford’s corporate sustainability commitment.
While experimenting with soy-based elastomers for seals and gaskets, Ford researchers discovered soy helps rubber remain elastic for longer periods of time. Bridgestone and Goodyear put this knowledge to good use and are in the final stages of reworking their tire-manufacturing facilities to use soy.
New uses for soy meet sustainability demands
A growing number of companies are making sustainability a major business priority.
Thanks to knowledge gained during years of soy-checkoff-supported research and investments in tools like the Lifecycle Analysis and the U.S. Soybean Sustainability Assurance Protocol, the U.S. soybean industry has a competitive business advantage.
Across the supply chain, to meet customer demand and government regulations, companies are taking steps to define and measure what sustainability means to their businesses.
Regulations are being put in place to improve the quality of the indoor-air we breathe, reduce business-material waste and help sustain the environment.
After the U.S. government identified formaldehyde as a possible carcinogen1, 2, 3, 4, researchers rushed to find a cost-effective alternative. With checkoff support, Ashland Inc. mixed protein-rich soy flour with a resin to produce Soyad™ adhesives.
News about this technology spread and inspired other companies to take it a step further.
Uniboard, a leading supplier of wood composites, created a particleboard from soy-based adhesive and recycled wood that eliminates formaldehyde exposure. Soy-based adhesives in composite building materials help contractors comply with codes and help sell more U.S. soy to industrial manufacturers.
This concept proved successful in the soy-based foam market as well.
Recently, Demilec, an industry leader in spray foam insulation, introduced Heatlok XT. This spray foam contains more than 20 percent soy polyols and recycled content. The new eco-friendly product is expected to increase demand in the green-building market.
“At a time when soy prices are low, it’s more important than ever to increase demand for soy,” says Domagalski. “Part of that is finding new ways to use it.”
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