LOGAN, Iowa — The Iowa Corn Promotion Board (ICPB) has received a new patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to improve the production process of making the compound isosorbide, used to increase the bio-content of plastic bottles and other polymers while increasing useful properties like plastic-melting temperature.

"The newly patented process allows for the increased production of corn-derived isosorbide, creating new markets for corn farmers," said Curt Mether, a Logan, Iowa, corn grower and ICPB Research and Business Development Committee chair. "This allows for a reduction in the amount of petroleum needed to make plastics, lowers carbon emissions and decreases the cost of consumer goods manufactured employing this process."

Specifically, U.S. Patent Number 9,120,806, titled "Dianhydrosugar Production Process," removes the need for using an expensive vacuum or inert gas in the production process.

In addition, Mether said it eliminates the need for including what he referred to as "environmentally-undesirable" organic solvents, all of which makes the process cheaper, allowing for greater consumption of corn and corn products.

The Research and Business Development Committee funds research to develop new uses for corn in the area of bioplastics. By 2017, the USDA estimates this market will consume more than 2 billion pounds of plastic a year, equating to 100 million bushels of corn, as opposed to traditional plastics, which use 5 percent of the global petroleum supply.

Mether said this project is just one example of ICPB research yielding results for Iowa’s corn farmers, with investments work-ing to "develop items such as bottles, dining utensils and shopping bags, all of which can be made from corn."

The idea for the project came out of the ICPB’s interest to move toward the incorporation of more of what he calls "green chemicals" in manufacturing. In 2001, the ICPB began funding research on isosorbide, matching corn checkoff dollars with a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

"A scientist from Pacific Northwest National Lab in Richland, Washington, approached the Iowa Corn Promo-tion Board who was interested in developing techno-logy related to isosorbide," Mether explained. "Since isosorbide is made from corn, it is a natural product for the ICPB to develop a process and commercialize technology.

"Some uses of plastic bottles require the liquid to be hot when it enters the bottle. Isosorbide potentially solves this by keeping the plastic solid at higher temperatures, which in turn can allow for faster production or lower costs. Other markets include replacing ingredients of concern with renewable materials in products like epoxy."

Mether said initial research was then conducted at the Pacific Lab, with further testing done at New Jersey Institute of Technology and with private companies. He said the patented research as a continuous process at lab scale was completed through an engineering contract firm. "Since the patent has just been issued, we are looking for partners to help commercialize the process to the next scale," he said. "The Iowa Corn Promotion Board holds issued and pending patents for the use of isosorbide in polyester and other plastic materials.

"However, the use of isosorbide does not stop at plastic, since the chemistry has implications other commodity polymers."

The next step is to license the technology to a commercial partner that will use this patented process to conduct additional product development research and test marketing, Mether said.