06/08/05 Corn and plastics - the NW connection

06/08/05 Corn and plastics - the NW connection

When one probably thinks of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the joint operation of the U.S. Energy Department and private contractor Batelle located near Richland Washington, the first connection might be work at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The farthest application of P.N.N.L.'s work in the minds of some might be agriculture. But Todd Werpy, who is P.N.N.L.'s Program Manager for Bioproducts, says anyone thinking the work of the lab is strictly on energy related matters is failing into an incorrect stereotype. WERPY: We are a multi-purpose laboratory and we work on everything from biology, chemistry, nuclear work is certainly a big portion of our business still. But we really work across the gambit when it comes to science and technology development. And it is that broad based approach, and some connections, that resulted in the development of a joint effort between P.N.N.L. and the Iowa Corn Promotion Board. WERPY: As an organization we spend a lot of time working with the Department of Energy. And through that relationship, the agricultural community, particularly in the Mid-West, has had a significant involvement with the Department of Energy as well. Under the agreement, P.N.N.L. researches and develops, while the I.C.P.B. markets, a new plastic additive made out of corn. WERPY: What we're trying to do is we're trying to look for additives that improve the functionality or the properties of various plastics. And one of those products is a material called isosorbide. And it's really beneficial in terms of the kinds of properties that it enhances. It increases the rigidity of plastics as well as raising basically the melting point. The new product would have commercial advantages in that the large volume of corn available to make isosorbide based plastics would be competitive with petroleum-based building blocks for plastics. Werpy says what that means from an economic standpoint is once mass production of isosorbide based plastic is reached, dependence on foreign oil to make plastics should decrease, and growers should have another customer for their commodity increasing their chances of profitability. But the question that comes out of this good news is if the Northwest has such a major scientific player in its own backyard, then will more regional ag interests take advantage of it to develop value added products and resources from our agricultural goods? Werpy says some of that is already underway at P.N.N.L., however at this point there are still some real world obstacles that have to be addressed. What some of those challenges are will be discussed in our next program.
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