PEORIA, Ill. — Current and future soybean demand is reshaping the commodities marketplace, with oil replacing meal in demand due to promising new markets. This is according to Todd Main, director of market development for the Illinois Soybean Association (ISA), who addressed a group of several dozen AgTech Connect members at the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Peoria Ag Lab about ongoing and future research projects at the Illinois Soy Innovation Center (SIC).  

“Soybean oil demand, particularly here in Illinois, is reshaping the marketplace,” said Main, who has represented the ISA as their market development lead for around seven years. “It used to be that the meal was the valuable part (of the bean) and oil was sort of the afterthought. The oil is driving the marketplace now.”

Technologies and potential market opportunities in fields such as bioplastics, biolubricants, biotextiles, PFAS substitutes, polymers and coatings are among the current and future topics of interest of the SIC, which was launched about a year ago. “It’s designed to be a one-stop shop, virtual, to support the research and commercialization of soy in new ways that haven’t been done before,” Main explained. 

Through the SIC, the ISA market development team identifies, ignites and supports innovative ideas, key products and research to drive new ways to use soy and to promote Illinois as the national leader in soybean production. The mission of the center is to provide its industry partners with the expertise, connections, and resources of ISA to support the commercialization of new or existing soy-based products. Companies operating as partners with the SIC (there are around 30 total) include Beck’s, ADM, Syngenta, Golden Harvest, Corteva, Bayer and BASF. 

“We know about meal, and there are some very interesting things being done in the meal market. The future is going to be in developing species-specific food formulas that have the right amino acid profile to optimize uptake (of proteins). That’s going to happen actually relatively soon,” said Main.  

“We already know oil is going to be used in biodiesel and renewable diesel and SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) and other biofuels, and that work is going to continue as well. It’s amazing what you can pull out of a soybean and build a business around. And that’s really what we want to do; we want to reach out to those people who have an idea that’s functional and business-ready, but need to scale and field-test and do all of that stuff,” he added.

The SIC’s first project, conducted in conjunction with a laboratory in Ohio called Arable, explored biolubricants. Searching for a product both price and performance-competitive with current market leaders, researchers developed a soy-based lubricant for machinery that is now in the third-party validation stage. 

“We’re now in the process of commercializing (the product) through a licensing agreement with some of the big oil companies you’ve probably heard about,” said Main. “We’re going to continue to work in the biolubricant space, build on that work and look at something that can be used in food manufacturing equipment, (meaning) food-grade biolubricants.”

With an eye to the future, SIC is engaging with the Illinois Innovation Network to host an event at Peoria’s Distillery Labs on April 15-16 to springboard an “innovation challenge” that will recruit students and researchers with ideas around soy. In addition to seeking entrepreneurs in the bio-textiles field, the SIC team will also be actively recruiting those with ideas for soy-based PFAS replacements, among other areas. PFAS — which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — are sometimes referred to as “forever chemicals,” it’s because they are nearly indestructible.

“There is a big race right now to replace PFAS, and how we can use soy to do that,” he said. 

Main pointed to an Illinois company’s marketing of a soy oil-based asphalt mix as more evidence of how an entrepreneur’s inspiration can be carried through to the product development stage. “This is a soy binding agent that allows you to recycle asphalt and use it again. As a demonstration project we paved an asphalt commodities tent area at the Farm Progress Show, and we (are planning) to do it again at the state fair. We’re talking to IDOT (Ill. Dept. of Transportation) as well,” he said. 

Main closed by saying that he feels Illinois has all the tools to quickly become a “world-class ag-tech economy” and attract venture capital due to its manufacturing, research facilities, producers and finance infrastructure.

“Even the state of Illinois has a venture fund and we are talking to them about partnering on some stuff we are going to do,” he said. “What we want to do is develop a pipeline. Our goal at the Innovation Center is to be the number-one place where people go to find investment-grade projects. At Illinois Soy we’re going to take equity positions in these companies and then roll that money back into the effort so it continues to grow and develop.”

For more information about the Illinois Soy Innovation Center, which receives funding from  the U.S. Soybean Checkoff program, visit www.soyinnovationcenter.com.