WORTHINGTON, OH - Two technologies developed through Ohio Soybean Council (OSC) and soybean checkoff collaborations have achieved Finalist designations for the R&D 100 Awards, with winners to be announced in November. 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.

Since the early 1990s, OSC has engaged in public and private collaborations that encourage rapid commercialization of new commercial and industrial uses of soybeans.

“It’s important that we continue to explore new ways to utilize our soybeans,” said Nathan Eckel, OSC Research Committee Chair and soybean farmer from Wood County. “Seeing technologies that we’ve helped develop with some amazing partners receive this kind of recognition is fantastic.”

A finalist in the R&D 100 Materials category and Green Tech Special Recognition (i.e., innovations that help make our environment greener and our goal towards energy reduction closer), Soy-PK offers a safe alternative to epoxy resins containing bisphenol-A (BPA).

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.

A finalist in the R&D 100 Process/Prototyping category and Green Tech Special Recognition, the 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.

Headquartered in Worthington, the Ohio Soybean Council is governed by a volunteer farmer board, which directs the Soybean Promotion and Research Program. The program’s primary goal is to improve soybean profitability by targeting research and development, education and promotion projects through the investment of farmer-contributed funds.