Biobased Industrial Products from Soybean Biorefinery

The use of biomass as raw materials for the production of fuels and chemicals to displace fossil resources has been the focus of many research activities in recent years. These activities are motivated by the desire for a sustainable resource supply, enhanced national security, and macroeconomic benefits for rural communities and the society at large. The use of plastic materials in the modern world has been increasing rapidly due to the relatively low cost of production and specific set of properties that can be derived from them. Until recently crude oil was the major source of these basic chemicals and value-added polymeric materials. Sustainable economics requires a similar wide range of processes that can utilize every component of these renewable resources. In our work with soybeans, we have used all parts of the bean (meal, oil and hulls) as a source of materials that can be converted economically to value-added products. The focus of this paper is to provide a few examples of this biorefinery concept that includes a catalyzed ozonation process of oil triglycerides to produce polyols, the conversion process of proteins in the meal to rigid polyurethane foams and the production of isocyanate-free polyurethanes from dimer acids. We will also review a novel silylation process that yields moisture activated RTV coatings from vegetable oils.