CHESTERFIELD, Mo. — The National Corn Growers Assoc. (NCGA) has partnered with the innovation facilitator company NineSigma to organize a global competition to find new uses for field corn.

 

Specifically, in the “Consider Corn” challenge, NCGA is looking for new ways corn can be used as feedstock for chemicals as it currently is used for ethanol.

Corn production has more than tripled since 1970, and increasingly sustainable methods of production make it an ideal focus for innovative use, said NCGA.

“This challenge is geared to inspire new concepts, approaches and technologies that will help drive innovation,” said Larry Hoffmann, a farmer from Wheatland, N.D., and chair of NCGA’s Corn Productivity and Quality Action Team.

Emerson Nafziger, an extension specialist in crop sciences at the University of Illinois, explained corn makes a good feedstock for chemicals as a source of starch.

“I think corn’s abundance makes it attractive as a source of starch,” he explained. “That’s based on its high yields and relative low cost per unit of starch produced. Starch can be modified to produce different properties, if needed.”

Up to six winning proposals will be selected from the pool of global respondents and receive $25,000 announced inFebruary 2018. NCGA may also explore funding or other support of an entry for further development and commercialization, even if it is not a prizewinner.

Nathan Mosier, Indiana Soybean Alliance’s (ISA) Utilization Endowed Chair and professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Purdue University, is head of a similar annual innovation competition hosted by ISA, on a much smaller scale for students at Purdue.

That competition, which asks for proposals on finished products rather than using soy as chemical feedstock, has led to products such as soy crayons and candles becoming part of the national market.

“I think this competition that NCGA is putting on is helpful, in that it focuses on the effort towards a specific product,” Mosier said. “I think competitions also tend to bring a wider diversity of ideas and backgrounds to elicit new ideas.”

He said broadening the soy competition to a variety of students in different majors and colleges helped reel in the best ideas. The same might be said for NCGA’s global competition.

“I think opening it up globally is great and will definitely increase the diversity of ideas,” he said. “I think as much as they can broaden their audience outside of traditional agriculture, that would be helpful, as well.”

Julie Ohmen, new uses consulting director for Indiana Corn and Soy, agreed that bringing a wide variety of people together to talk corn could be valuable  in more than one way. “I think competitionsare not only important to provide initial ideas for innovation, but also to bring people together – to bring networks to life,” she noted. “Letting people innovate together, that’s where I see the power in these competitions.

“In some cases, innovation is collaboration and bringing existing ideas from oneindustry segment and branching that over to another one.”

With the abundance of corn produced in the United States, Mosier said sustainable uses for the crop are welcome. “I think there is a very compelling story to be told about the sustainability of using agricultural materials for making new products  in a more environmentally-friendly,responsible and sustainable way.”

NCGA will be accepting proposals for the “Consider Corn” challenge until Sept. 28 at 5 p.m. EDT. Proposals can be submitted through NineSigma’s Open Innovation community at www.NineSights.com

For more information and updates on the challenge, competitors should visit https://ninesights.ninesigma.com/web/consider-corn