News

Two technologies developed through Ohio Soybean Council (OSC) and soybean checkoff collaborations have won 2016 R&D 100 Awards. Both technologies, Soy-PK Resin and Bio-YIELD bioreactor, leverage the natural properties of soybeans to increase the sustainability and improve health in modern industries. Winners were announced late last week at the R&D 100 Awards Conference in Washington, D.C.

“I can’t fully express how honored we feel as an organization to win R&D 100 Awards for our research and development efforts,” said Nathan Eckel, OSC Research Committee chair and soybean farmer from Wood County. “Research and development for soy-based products has been a priority for our organization for decades and we are proud to see our technologies recognized both nationally and internationally.”

Since the early 1990s, OSC has engaged in public and private collaborations that encourage rapid commercialization of new commercial and industrial uses of soybeans. For over 50 years, the R&D 100 Awards – dubbed the ‘Oscars of Invention’ – is the place where the research and development community come together each year to recognize the top technology innovations around the world.

This year’s awards mark the sixth and seventh R&D 100 Awards that OSC has received since 2007.

About Soy-PK Resin:

Soy-PK offers a safe alternative to epoxy resins containing bisphenol-A (BPA). BPA represents a health hazard, especially in food contact applications—BPA-based polycarbonate plastic bottles have been banned for infant feeding usage and California relisted BPA as a hazardous chemical in May 2015.

The Soy-PK Resin offers a practical and readily implementable drop-in replacement for BPA-containing epoxy coatings in metal beer, beverage, and food can coatings. The Soy-PK Resin offers a viable option to displace a significant amount of fossil-based BPA-containing epoxy resins with a renewable-source raw material, greatly improving industry’s environmental footprint. Other team members include Battelle and Redwood Innovations.

For more information about the Soy-PK resin, OSC’s role in its development, and/or licensing, please contact Mr. Barry McGraw, Director, Ohio Soybean Council (bmcgraw@soyohio.org; 614-310-1804).

About Bio-YIELD bioreactor:

3Bar Biologics Bio-YIELD bioreactor is a patent-pending device that enables farmers to grow their own beneficial microbes, enabling increased crop yield with reduced chemical inputs. This approach addresses one of the most significant sustainability challenges of our time: to increase agricultural production while reducing use of resources and impact on climate.

The Bio-YIELD bioreactor uses a disposable inoculant system that delivers fresher, more viable microbes versus competitor processes. The system opens the commercialization potential of numerous beneficial, naturally occurring microbes that have been proven in research over the past two decades but never before available commercially in a viable state.

For more information about Bio-YIELD please contact Mr. Bruce Caldwell, Founder and CEO, 3Bar Biologics (brucecaldwell@3barbiologics.com; 614-271-9388)