DECATUR, Ill. – Exciting soybean utility technology was literally underfoot at the 2023 Farm Progress Show, where the Illinois Soybean Association (ISA) paved the way for a new, soy-based polymer asphalt compound to hit the market. A new 100 percent recycled soy oil-based asphalt pad, covering more than 40,000 square feet, stretched from Progress City’s West to Central avenues.

That the sustainable soy technology debuted in Decatur – known as “Soy City” due to the presence of ADM headquarters – made the occasion only more appropriate. The oil-based polymer, which is mixed with recycled asphalt to create fresh pavement, is another way the ISA is working to create more overall demand for Illinois soybeans, according to Scott Gaffner, ISA at-large director.

“We as farmers look at new innovative ways to create markets for our soybeans. This is a viable opportunity that has less of a carbon footprint. It’s just about getting the word out there that this is a viable option,” said Gaffner, who was accompanied at a news conference with Austin Hohlmann, asphalt and concrete manager for Ames, Iowa-based Colorbiotics.

“There are several layers to getting this product to market. There are DIY products that we can go to market with, markets for smaller and larger applicators and people who are looking to do driveways and parking lots,” said Holhmann, whose company recently opened a 15,000 square-foot warehouse just blocks from its Ames office headquarters.

“Then there are asphalt mixing plants that are looking to actually take this material, integrally mix it, and do something similar to what we did at the Farm Progress Show. Just like traditional paving, but it will be used through a cold-mix process to make that roadway,” he added.

Both Hohlmann and Gaffner hope to tap into the federal, state and local government markets to take the soy-based asphalt mix to another level. “Currently we are working with a couple of states and DOTs on some projects,” said Hohlmann, who helped discover the polymer while a graduate student at Iowa State University, where the soy asphalt research embraced by the ISA began in 2021.

Hohlmann helped found a startup business around the soy oil compound through ISU’s Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering. They called the early product Invigorate Rejuvenator™. Rejuvenator can reduce paving costs by as much as 80 percent compared to projects that use new materials, according to Eric Cochran, a chemical and biological engineering professor at ISU.

Cochran said the technology works best in lower-traffic projects like recreational trails, driveways and parking lots, and could also be more economical for rural road projects. Each acre of the recycled asphalt uses thousands of pounds of high-oleic soybean oil. The polymer could replace more expensive, highly volatile compounds commonly used as an asphalt binder.

“This polymer can take used asphalt and make it into usable asphalt. The technology uses a polymer made with soybean oil that revitalizes and binds the asphalt together,” Hohlmann said.

“We have our markets; 60 percent of soybeans grown in Illinois are exported. But we also want to have other avenues to make sure we can move this commodity,” Gaffner said. “We are excited about this partnership, because our main purpose is to move that soybean pile and make sure our farmers are more profitable, and our environment more sustainable.”

The ISA’s soy-based asphalt project that stretched across Progress City and provided the footing under the colossal Varied Industries Tent required 4,200 pounds of soybean oil. With a bushel of soybeans yielding about 10.7 pounds of oil, 392 bushels of soybeans were used for the project.

“We’re excited to bring this new technology to the Farm Progress Show,” said Don Tourte, senior vice president of the Farm Progress Company, in a news release. “Any way we can improve the site for visitors and exhibitors while also encouraging new uses for our farmers’ crops creates benefits for everyone.”