New technology could boost corn demand

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — A groundbreaking technology has been developed that could boost domestic corn demand by over a billion bushels.

Cameron Rylance, Bluestem Biosciences vice president of government affairs and business development, spoke of how the renewable chemical company can transform the demand market in an interview on Illinois Corn TV.

“Bluestem Biosciences is based in Omaha, Nebraska. We started with the thesis that you could derive a lot of value from existing ethanol infrastructure in the Midwest utilizing the best feedstock there is — corn — to create chemicals other than ethanol,” Rylance said.

“Through anaerobic fermentation which is currently used to produce ethanol, we can produce chemicals that are currently made using petroleum.”

Bluestem Biosciences developed novel yeast biology for the sustainable anaerobic bio-production of 3-Hydroxypropionic acid, a chemical intermediate for the acrylates chemical family, a $25 billion addressable market.

This strategic platform molecule serves a variety of consumer end markets, like personal care products, paints and coatings.

Bluestem will leverage its novel yeast biology through the retrofit of underutilized existing shuttered ethanol production facilities across the United States.

Bluestem’s anaerobic biology is intended to mimic ethanol production, creating numerous economic benefits while supporting the rural Midwest bioeconomy and agricultural communities.

Additionally, Bluestem’s technology reduces dependence on petroleum for feedstock currently used in chemical production and relies on corn as the primary feedstock, while reshoring supply chains back to the United States.

“Acrylates are a really important chemical for a lot of end markets, but they are all currently made out of oil, and by utilizing the existing ethanol infrastructure across the Midwest, we can address a much higher value end market for corn farmers,” Rylance said.

“To get off a barrel of oil, you need to get on to a bushel of corn.”

—  Billy Hagstrom, co-founder, Bluestem Biosciences

Acrylates are used in both the public and private sectors, ranging from absorbent polymer inside baby diapers to absorbent sheets at the bottom of a package of meat.

“On the public sector, the Department of Defense is really interested in it for paint, coatings, adhesives, it goes into carbon fiber. It’s about a $25 billion end market. That’s larger than the entire U.S. ethanol market,” Rylance said.

The DOD awarded Bluestem Biosciences a $2.16 million grant last month through its Distributed Bioindustrial Manufacturing Program to plan an anaerobic fermentation facility “for producing an organic acid as a key precursor for the fabrication of defense-related bioplastics/polymers and adhesives.”

The company was founded two years ago and received a pre-seed financing round of $5 million from Zero Infinity Partners, Navigator CO2 Ventures, Invest Nebraska, Bluestem co-founder and CEO Billy Hagstrom and investor Robert Sali.

Rylance reiterated the new process can be incorporated into existing ethanol facilities with only change being the end product.

“The outside of a Bluestem plant looks exactly as an ethanol plant. You have whole kernel corn coming in, you have product coming out along with other co-products. You have distillers dried grain, corn oil and the like. The only difference is the acrylic product being produced as opposed to ethanol,” he said.

“The reason we’ll be able to achieve economic price parity with those existing petroleum-based acrylics is that existing rail loadout, the corn intake and processing equipment, the municipal waste water, that EPA emissions certificate, all of that stuff that sits on a bioethanol facility today, Bluestem will be able to utilize to be commercially successful.”

National Corn Winner

Bluestem was the recipient of one of four Consider Corn Challenge IV winners announced by the National Corn Growers Association at the Advanced Bioeconomy Leadership Conference last year.

The winners each received $62,500 for their unique ways to improve a product or process using feed corn to produce biobased materials.

“We were really excited at Bluestem to be chosen for NCGA’s Consider Corn Challenge IV around this research we’re working on. It’s great not only from a funding standpoint. We’re super excited to receive that funding from NCGA, but more so the connection that we’ve been able to make with corn farmers on a state and national level,” Rylance said.

“I’m based in Washington, D.C., and that reception has been great. It really put us on the map as somebody that the corn growers look to as a possible new end market and that’s been really exciting for us, as well.”

Corn Advantage

There are many other feedstocks produced by U.S. farmers and Rylance was asked why corn was chosen.

“We’ve chosen corn as a feedstock for a few reasons, but at the end of the day the biggest is that corn producer across the Midwest. We’re confident that by bringing that new source of demand for corn, it’s not going to create scarcity that some people bring up sometimes,” he said.

“Corn growers have always been able to meet that demand through on-farm ingenuity. Also, in D.C. we’ve gotten some push back in terms of climate change and decarbonization, but where we found a lot of good reception is really by highlighting the sustainability of the farmer.

“Corn growers have been sustainably producing corn for over a century and have continued to produce more with less, while reducing that carbon intensity of that corn every year.

“If we’re able to combine that sustainability, on-farm ingenuity, with existing ethanol infrastructure and our new biology, we’re going to unlock some incredible new end markets for corn, while still promoting world agricultural sustainability and U.S.-based supply chains.”

Barrel To Bushel

“To get off a barrel of oil, you need to get on to a bushel of corn.” Hagstrom said.

“That quote has been with us since the beginning of Bluestem. We have seen corn compete with the lowest value portion of a barrel of oil. That’s gasoline. It’s competed with gasoline at the pump for over two decades, and now we’re trying to give it the ability to compete with the highest value fraction of a barrel of oil, those petrochemicals,” Rylance said.

“To put it into perspective, that $25 billion end market of acrylics is equivalent to about 1.8 billion bushels of corn demand per year. That’s a huge amount of corn, a huge amount of chemical market that we need to address, and we’re really excited to be doing it with a sustainable feedstock like corn.”