A chemical engineer at Iowa State looks at the possibilities and problems of increasing industrial use of farm products. While effects might not be immediate, he says, such use could be effective over time

Arnold, Lionel K

English

A chemical engineer at Iowa State looks at the possibilities and problems of increasing industrial use of farm products. While effects might not be immediate, he says, such use could be effective over time.</p

Arnold, Lionel

Digital Repository @ Iowa State University (ISU)

Increase Industrial Uses ol Farm Products ? A chemical engineer at Iowa State looks at the possibilities and prob-lems of increasing the industrial use of farm products. While effects might not be immediate, he says, such use could be effective over time. by Lionel K. Arnold T HE FARM PROBLEM-surplus production and low farm incomes compared with in-comes in other parts of the econ-omy-isn't new. But it has be-come more obvious and serious in recent years. The temporary farm prosperity brought about by the Korean con-flict ended by 19 5 3, reminding the nation that the farm problem still existed. As outlined earlier in IowA FARM SCIENCE: "In-creasing evidence has indicated that agriculture is (and has been for some time) out of balance or adjustment with the rest of the economy. Returns to resources in agriculture have been declining. The national economy has been growing, but agriculture hasn't been sharing fully in the fruits of this growth." Basically, this appears to be a problem of overproduction and re-source use. As pointed out in the report of the Commission of In-creased Industrial Use of Agricul-tural Products to the 85th Con-gress: "American farmers have succeeded so well in the necessary effort to increase their efficiency that they now consistent-ly outrun the capacity of the economy to consume what they produce. "To cope with this situation, which has widespread disrupting effects on markets, Government has resorted to costly programs for restricting land use, controlling production, and disposing of surpluses. "Though population is growing and living standards are rising, the produc-tive capacity of our agriculture prom-ises for many years to keep increasingly ahead of both. LIONEL K. ARNOLD is professor of chem-ical engineering, Eng ineering Expe rime nt Station at Iowa State. "An increase in exports seems unlikely as other countries become more and more self-sufficient. "It is widely agreed that American agriculture should for many reasons be kept at high levels of production and efficiency. Since there seems to be little prospect of a sufficiently large expansion of food markets in the next decade to use all the excess, the question becomes: "Can the economy develop profitable industrial markets capable of absorbing enough of the excess farm production to minimize , possibly even to eliminate, the need for costly restrictions, supports, and surplus disposing operations?" Industrial Uses? From the standpoint of the chemical engineer, it appears that it should be possible to do much to develop industrial markets for farm surpluses. Farm surpluses are basically chemical raw mate-rials - cellulose, starches, sugars, fats and proteins. As chemical raw materials, they could well be the starting point of a wide vari-ety of industrial products with many uses. While many of the possible products are known to chemical engineers and chemists, the devel-opment of these products and of yet unvisualized products will de-pend mainly on research to point out their potential uses to indus-try. The Commission's report had this comment: "With few exceptions materials from the farm have not had the intensive and systematic laboratory attention that has been given to those from other sources. When utilization research in agriculture has had the benefits of adequate expen-ditures and large teams of workers, the results have been outstanding-as in the case of commercial methods for produc-ing penicillin, frozen concentrated fruit juice, nylon from corncobs , various products from soybeans." It isn't enough, however, just to know what products might be made from agricultural materials. In most cases, these involve the operation of a new process-call-ing for an outlay for new equip-ment in the face of the usual un-certainty as to details of operation and profit. The potential profits must be higher than the known profits of the old process if they're to be attractive to the manufactur-er. It's also necessary that there be a reasonably constant supply of the material available in both the short and long run. Processing industries-because of their relatively high investment and low profit margins - usually must operate substantially all of the time to show a profit. Remem-ber that the manufacturer, like the farm operator, is in business to make money and can't be ex-pected to invest money in a new factory without some assurance of a profitable return on his invest-ment. It's important also that the new products made from agricultural raw materials don't simply replace older products made from the same or other agricultural raw materials. A mere shift in the end product being marketed doesn't necessarily benefit the farmer. The new uses which would benefit agriculture will probably be in the nonfood field since it's difficult to increase per-capita food consump-tion. Another point to keep in mind is that there are some products which it would be foolish to at-tempt to produce from agricultur-al materials since they can be pro-11-467 duced more cheaply from other raw materials. Any extended industrial use of farm products will involve chemi-cal and physical changes of some sort. It may involve the isolation and production of constituents of the products. Zein, a corn protein, for exam-ple, has been isolated and made into fibers. This involved the de-velopment not only of methods for separating the zein but also of methods of dissolving, extruding into fibers and hardening, as well as necessary studies on dyeing and weaving it into fabric. Extensive industrial use might also involve the use of existing products of farm origin in manu-facturing new products. It's known, for instance, that many complex organic compounds can be produced by starting with corn starch as a raw material and re-acting it with various chemicals. Among the possibilities here are such products as plastics, plasti-cizers, films and fibers. Or, industrial use might involve the substitution of an agricultural product as a raw material in place of another raw material for a well-established final product. An ex-ample of this is the use of furfural -a product from oat hulls and corncobs-in place of some of the petroleum derivatives originally used in the manufacture of nylon. So no exact pattern can be set up for carrying out the necessary research and development. But we can outline a general line of attack. What's Needed First, we'd need to secure the basic fundamental data. This would include analyses of the raw materials and determinations of the physical and chemical charac-teristics of the various constitu-ents. Many of these data are available but need to be gathered together, systematized and evalu-ated. Other data still need to be determined. The next step would be a criti-cal examination of the data to see whether any of the constituents might be suitable either as com-mercial products outright or as the raw materials for possible com-mercial products. The possibility 12-468 of separating this constituent and the probable cost of such separa-tion must then be considered. The possibility of use must be thought of on the basis of the costs and supplies of the raw materials in the short and long run, the proc-essing costs and the sales values of the resulting products. The third step would involve small-scale separation and conver-sion into the proposed products with further and more definite checks on the probable economics of the procedure. The fourth step would be com-mercialization. Before designing and putting the new process into operation, it may be necessary to carry out pilot-plant studies on part or all of the process to deter-mine the costs or to design equip-ment. The need for pilot-plant work depends partly on the amount of accumulated experience with similar operations and on whether standard equipment can be used or whether entirely new equipment must be designed. Sometimes large-scale pilot plants are operated to furnish samples for customer evaluation. Before building the final plant, a complete survey of probable mar-kets based on supplying the prod-uct in the amounts and at the prices indicated by the earlier studies should be made. Different Crops . . . In addition to potentially great-er use of existing farm products, it may be possible to use some of the acreage now producing surplus crops in growing new crops which can be used industrially. This would call for combined work and development by both agriculture and industry. A current example of such a crop is the soybean. The soybean was introduced into the country from Asia by gov-ernment plant experts and was developed into a practical crop by other USDA and state experiment stations experts. The development of methods for extraction and use of the oil was done largely by the chemists and engineers of the veg-etable oil industry. Between 1924 and 1957, the acreage planted to soybeans in the United States increased by more than 20 million acres. The. result-ing oil did produce competition for other domestically produced fats . But this competition was largely off set by reductions in imports and an increase in exports of fats. The soybean meal, produced as a co-product with the oil, provided the protein supplement needed for an expanding livestock industry. A related area for research is in the development of new varieties of existing crops that are superior to the present varieties for indus-trial use. An example of this is the development of "waxy" corn with starch composed entirely of amylopectin, the branched-chain fraction of ordinary starch. This starch is used in certain adhesives, special food products and in tex-tile printing. About 30,000 bush-els of this corn were ~roduced last year. Another new development is a corn with starch high in amylose, the straight-chain fraction of ordi-nary starch. The amylose fraction of the starch appears to have com-mercial possibilities in the produc-tion of films and fibers. This new variety of corn may be commer-cial as early as 1961. Who Would Do It? Any comprehensive research program covering studies on in-dustrial use of farm products as well as the development of new crops with industrial applications brings up the questions of who will do it and how it will be fi-nanced. The commission quoted earlier proposes financing by the federal government and over-all control by a new federal commis-sion which would allocate prob-lems and funds to existing re-search organizations - such as government, college and industrial laboratories. Properly carried out, such a program could be very effective over time. But the commerciali-zation step, either with or without a pilot plant, would need joint en-gineering and industry coopera-tion. This phase might be com-pletely financed by an interested industrial organization, whether carried out by an independent lab-oratory or in the laboratories of the industrial organization itself. 

Increase Industrial Uses of Farm Products?

https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/handle/20.500.12876/37073

Increase Industrial Uses of Farm Products?

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