Photos by Rolf Hagberg
AURI has worked with dozens of Minnesota companies developing industrial and consumer products from plants. Successful products like those highlighted below eventually mean new manufacturing plants and jobs in rural Minnesota, close to the supply of raw materials.
Rust busters
Cortec industrial lubricants
White Bear Lake, Minn. — AURI helped Cortec Corporation replace mineral oil with renewable soy methyl esters in its EcoLine products for lubricating and protecting machinery.
The $25-million company makes more than 300 corrosion-protection products for the electronics, construction, drilling, metalworking, food processing, automobile and marine industries. Customers include General Motors, Motorola, Boeing, Exxon, Ford and the military.
One of the first Minnesota companies to meet ISO 14001 environmental protection standards, Cortec is a global leader in biodegradable corrosion-control products, says Art Ahlbrecht, vice president for research and development.
One of Cortec’s newest offerings is a biodegradable soy-based concrete preservative that protects newly poured concrete and inhibits corrosion. It is part of a soy-based product family that includes surface cleaners, cutting fluids, food machinery lubrication and heavy-duty greases.
Interest in plant-based lubricants is strong, especially in Europe, where Cortec does about a third of its sales, Ahlbrecht says. Biolubricants may be more expensive now but “as petroleum gets more expensive, we’re going to have to move to renewables.”
Surfactant of Preferrence
Agriliance soy-based herbicide adjuvants
Inver Grove Heights, Minn. — A decade after it was introduced, Preference has become a leading herbicide adjuvant.
The soy-based surfactant improves herbicides’ effectiveness by making spray droplets adhere to weed leaves. It is the first non-ionic surfactant to use soapstock, a soy refining byproduct, instead of a petroleum derivative.
Preference and another soy-based adjuvant, Destiny, are marketed by Agriliance, LLC. “Preference is our flagship non-ionic surfactant,” says Bob Herzfeld, Agriliance marketing manager who developed the products along with AURI scientists. “We’re selling it in 38 states.”
Preference outperforms similar petroleum-based surfactants and growers like using a crop-based product. It sold well after its 1992 introduction and was used on eight million acres by 1996.
When sales slumped due to the advent of herbicide-resistant crops, such as Round-Up Ready soybeans, Agriliance began marketing Preference for sugar beets, cotton and post-emergent corn herbicides. Last year, sales again climbed to eight million acres, requiring soapstock from about six million bushels of refined soybeans.
Agriliance is testing another soapstock product, Barrier, which controls hog manure odors and reduces hydrogen sulfide emissions in barns. It may also be used in municipal waste lagoons, paper mills and other industries.
Slowly softening the market
SoySoft moisturizing lotion
Grove City, Minn. — At the Minnesota State Fair last August, AURI gave away thousands of soy-oil lotion samples. SoySoft got rave reviews from consumers, as it has for the past five years, says Dan Lemke, AURI communications director.
Since 1998, AURI has been helping Cliff and Lucy Larson market SoySoft moisturizing lotions. They are now distributed in 30 states,
Late last year, SoySoft picked up a major distributor, Mountain People, which supplies California and Colorado health food stores. Hospital gift shops have become good markets, as well as country elevators and farm stores, says Lucy, who still runs the company from her dining room table. “Men come in to get parts and pick up lotion.”
In October, the Larsons introduced four-ounce bars of SoySoft Soap and are developing a soy oil sunscreen. “We’re in a difficult market,” and sales growth has been slow, Lucy admits. Yet last year a trade-show appearance generated a $625,000 order, which the Larsons reluctantly turned down. “We don’t yet have the production capacity.”
Swheatening the scoop
Pet Care Systems cat litter
Detroit Lakes, Minn. — It has been nearly 10 years since AURI began working with the makers of Swheat Scoop cat litter. Mike and Vonnie Hughes and their son, Mark, founders of Pet Care Systems, have since “doubled sales almost every year,” Mark says.
AURI helped formulate the litter, made with nonfood wheat, and build a processing plant in 1996. The company introduced a crumbled litter that is more absorbent and works in self-cleaning litter boxes in 2001, the same year AURI honored Pet Care with its Ag Innovator of the Year award.
Last July, Pet Care Systems was sold to Farmers Union Marketing and Processing Association of Redwood Falls, a $60 million diversified agribusiness, which also operates Central Bi-Products, Midwest Grease and Northland Choice, a pet food manufacturer. Mike and Mark Hughes continue to manage the company.
Pet Care Systems then mounted a $1.5 million national ad campaign, combined with a $5 million coupon promotion. Product demand surged. The company added a second production shift to meet orders and is building a 7,000-square-foot storage warehouse. Wheat use is now up to three truckloads a week, Mark says.
Swheat Scoop is sold in nearly 9,000 retail outlets, including Target, PetsMart, Petco, Pet Valu and Pet Supplies Plus stores. Last year, Pet Care Systems expanded into grocery stores, placing Swheat Scoop in 700 Kroger stores, plus retail chains in Utah, Arizona and Colorado.
Sunflower gloves?
Colorado State University and USDA-ARS researchers are trying to increase the natural rubber produced in sunflowers from 1 to 10 percent by cross-breeding with guayule, a rubber-producing plant, or by stimulating the sunflower's rubber gene. A commercial variety is at least eight years away.
Source: www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jun02/rubber0602.htm
Allfiber technology
An alliance between five organizations in the finance, engineering and construction industries will help communities, farming groups and investors develop manufacturing complexes for ethanol, biodiesel, agrifiber board and hydroponics.
Source: www.allfiber.com; Gerry Hooper, Allfiber Group LLC, Decatur, AL, ghooper@allfibers.com
Corn breaks under protease
USDA-ARS researchers have applied for a patent on a corn refining method that could lower costs and shorten the time to produce starch, oil and other coproducts. The method relies on protease enzymes to break down starch and protein and requires only a six-hour pretreatment of corn kernels before milling.
Source: David B. Johnston, USDA-ARS Crop Conversion Science and Engineering Research Unit, Wyndmoor, PA, (215) 836-3756, e-mail djohnston@arserc.gov
Feathers to filters
With more than nine billion chickens raised for food annually in the United States, the industry generates enormous quantities of feathers. USDA-ARS scientists have found a way to turn chicken feathers into strong, less-dense plastic composites for products as varied as car dashboards and boat exteriors. Feathers make good paper and the superfine size and shape of feathers make them particularly well suited to filtration needs.
Already patented, the technology has been licensed to three companies, with two pilot plants already turning feathers into fiber.
Source: Walter F. Schmidt, USDA-ARS Environmental Quality Laboratory, Beltsville, MD, (301) 504-6765, schmidtw@ba.ars.usda.gov
