The confluence of available corn-based feedstocks and consumer demand represents an opportunity for stakeholders in the sustainable biomaterials industry and will help drive demand for corn. The National Corn Growers Association is working to establish new uses of corn and demonstrating corn as the clear feedstock of choice.
“The seeds have to be planted along the way to find the next big new uses of corn,” said NCGA Director of Market Development Sarah McKay. “This doesn’t just happen overnight. That’s why we’ve been working with university researchers, government entities, and untraditional partners to prime the pump for innovation and viable uses of corn. We also work with individual companies, innovators and research groups to engage in conversations and projects together to facilitate these technologies to commercialization while making sure their customers understand the value of corn as an industrial feedstock.”
NCGA has held two Consider Corn Challenge contests. Many of the winners have gone on to secure additional funding to help get their products to the market. The winners have developed biosourced materials from corn that are starting materials for various biobased plastics, nylons, polyester resins, and more.
There are many reasons why corn makes the perfect industrial feedstock, and you can view them here, in the updated Corn as an Industrial Feedstock booklet.
This week, NCGA released the latest episode of their podcast, Wherever Jon May Roam, talking about new uses and why corn is the right fit to be used in biobased products. You can listen to the episode here.
In the podcast, Jon Doggett says, “So if you read the labels of common household products from the emulsifiers in your detergent to the plastic that wraps the items in your fridge, these all can be made from corn-based material. And I don’t need to tell this audience, we really need to find some more places to put all this corn that we’re growing. And we’re growing it sustainably. We want to push that through to new products that help our environment around the world.”
