A researcher from The Ohio State University has found a way to make a polyurethane foam from a by-product of biodiesel.
Yebo Li, a biosystems engineer with the university's Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) in Wooster, has found a way to turn glycerin into a renewable, cheaper foam.
In fact, the bio-polyol developed by OARDC — the research arm of Ohio State's College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences — has many other advantages over its competitors that make it an attractive investment: it doesn't take away crops from food production; it can be used at 100 percent to make products such as insulation boards (other bio-polyols need to be blended with petroleum-based polyols to bring up the quality); and there's an abundant supply of low-cost crude glycerin in the domestic and international markets.
Poly-Green Technologies officials hope to enter the market between July and September, a market that is worth more than $13 billion in the U.S.
