Driving Soy-Stainability

Columbus is home to world-class, cutting-edge product research and development. But only one of its R&D companies focuses 100% on developing safe, sustainable products made from the soybean oil grown right here in the Buckeye State.

Airable Research Lab, a business line of the Ohio Soybean Council, is located in Delaware, on Ohio Wesleyan University’s campus and is run by Chief Laboratory Officer Barry McGraw. According to him, sustainability is at the heart of everything Airable does.

Most of the lab’s material development work revolves around starting with soybean oil, with the goal of replacing petroleum oil-based products, like waxes, adhesives, surfactants, coatings, monomers and resins. But the lab is also interested in working with soybean byproducts, like hulls, that have historically had little value and limited use. McGraw explained that using soy components is often more environmentally friendly, safer and cheaper than the conventional petroleum-based products.

“Those materials are going to be touched by people or they’re going to go into the ground, so it’s very important that those materials are as close to natural as possible.” he said. “So the more we can convert these petroleum-based materials to soy-based, it’s not only better for the environment, but better for the people using them.”

McGraw is also proud of the fact that the lab sources its starting materials from soybeans grown in the United States, rather than working with petroleum that had to be sourced from overseas.

“Sustainability to me means using a material that can be sourced locally the U.S., that there’s plenty of it, and that it performs well,” McGraw said.

To his knowledge, the lab is unique in its concentration. No other R&D company is solely focused on developing soy-based products. That hyperfocus on soybeans has allowed the chemists and researchers at Airable to become experts in soy-based product research. 

This expertise – combined with the fact that the lab is already fully funded by the Ohio Soybean Council and several other state soybean checkoff organizations – allows companies to approach Airable with an idea or need for a soy-based product, and Airable can develop it at no cost to that company.

“I don’t know of any other labs that will develop products basically for free for commercial companies, startups, entrepreneurs, large companies,” he said. “If there’s someone hungry to develop these products, we’re willing to help them do it.”