Public Release:  Biorefinery makes use of every bit of a soybean

American Chemical Society

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 22, 2012 -- The corn industry produces almost 4,000 products from every bushel. Oil refineries produce fuels and ingredients for an estimated 6,000 products with a thoroughness that actually squeezes 44 gallons of products from every 42-gallon barrel of crude.


"Mention soybeans to most people, and they immediately think of the oil," said Ramani Narayan, MSU University Distinguished Professor, who reported on the new biorefinery technology. "Soybean oil is the world's most widely used edible oil. It's in some margarines, shortenings, mayonnaise, salad dressings, frozen foods, baked goods and many other items. But soybeans are about more than oil. Soybeans are nuggets of green gold that can be a treasure trove of ingredients for other products, and our new biorefinery provides a glimpse of that potential."


Narayan explained that soybeans pack much of corn's potential as a raw material, or "feedstock," for biorefineries. But soybean processing facilities traditionally have focused mainly on producing oil (which also has non-food uses in paints and inks, for instance) and soybean meal for livestock feed.



"The biorefinery can utilize essentially every component of the soybean in the production of bio-based ingredients for high-value products," Narayan said. "It makes sense from a sustainability standpoint, in which we strive to reduce our dependence on petroleum as a feedstock. It also benefits the soybean farmers and raises the value of the local economy."



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Until recently crude oil was the most important source of basic chemicals and value-added polymeric materials. Using different processes and chemical reactions a barrel of oil is converted to a wide range of chemicals in addition to fuel. More recently renewable materials have become increasingly important raw materials for the chemical industry and the need arises to develop a similar wide range of processes that can utilize every component of these renewable resources. In our work with soybeans, we have used all parts of the bean (meal, oil and hulls) as sources of materials that can be converted economically to value-added products. Examples of this biorefinery concept include the proteins in the meals that were hydrolyzed and then converted to hydroxyl terminated urethanes. These urethanes were then further processed into foams, adhesives, etc. or reacted to yield useful polyesters, polyamides and polyureas. The triglycerides in the oil were subjected to catalyzed ozonation reactions that produced aldehyde, polyols and diesters functional groups. These intermediates were then used to prepare polyesters, formaldehyde-free resins and isocyanate-free polyurethanes. Alternatively, the oil was silylated to yield RTV coatings and other reactive intermediates. The cellulosic hulls were also utilized and were used in electro-rheological fluids and as reinforcing fillers in rubbers.
