At a recent Emerging Technology Forum, two representatives from The Andersons, Inc. issued a simple, but highly demanding challenge: We need to feed the world, and we need to create fuel and fiber and raw materials on shrinking arable land (thanks to urban sprawl). This next statement put the challenge in perspective: Because the agriculture industry relies on crop protection and nutrient supplementation as vital to food production, an unfortunate problem results because the liquid formulations of fertilizers and pesticides used in today’s agriculture have the associated risks.
Chuck Anderson, Director of Technical and Marketing Development, and Tim Birthisel, R&D Director (he’s responsible for quality assurance and has been with The Andersons Inc. for 35 years), talked about enhancing the precision of delivery for biomaterials in agriculture and beyond – addressing the problems and some innovative solutions to fertilizer and pesticide “drift.”
Birthisel said the company has been innovating ways to get beyond the stray spray from aerosol applications – which is being regulated by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In fact, sprayed chemicals can travel hundreds of miles, so that chemicals used in Mississippi cotton production have been found in ice particles as far away as the Arctic Circle. Since the mid-1990s, The Andersons has been using the technology where the granule sticks to foliage and releases a compound. These granules can be applied with a spreader and stick to the leaves of a plant, which then absorb the active ingredients through foliar activity. This approach, already validated, reduces safety issues because the granules are safer to handle than sprayed-on chemicals.
The Andersons granule technology avoids one problem common to granule technologies, and that is the delivery systems, such as clay carriers. Anderson said that such non-biodegrable materials persist in the environment and can cause hazards to wildlife and humans because wildlife can ingest or come into contact with people or other animals, and inadvertently transport the chemicals to other areas.
Anderson said that granule technology can take one of three forms: 1) disperse in water or soil, where the water activates the chemicals or they are incorporated into the soil; 2) attach to leaves and possibly stems (foliar); or 3) foam. Where earlier research and development by The Andersons focused on the granules and finding ways to disperse them and get them to attach to foliar surfaces, now the thrust is application and developing a suite of application technologies. Today’s Andersons’ granule technology uses an advanced granular platform that eliminates the problems of spray drift and minimizes the hazards of traditional granules. The core of the concept is an advanced technology, who granules deliver fertilizers and pesticide or biologically active ingredients to specifically targeted areas. The technology, which relies on biomaterials, significantly reduces the present environmental and health hazards of fertilizers and pesticides.
The golf course version of Andersons’ granules, the most advanced of their technologies, attaches of turf grass, releases its compound, and can reduce turf growth for easier course management. The granules technology can be applied to soil and with added water, will foam to envelop the plant. By doing so much less active ingredient is necessary and the granules release much less carbon dioxide than other foliar growth regulators.
According to Birthisel, the most recent thrust in R&D is directed at using bioproducts from the waste stream and using them in product from locally available biomass. The Andersons is testing natural nutrients, bioproducts from their ethanol production facilities. OBIC has helped The Andersons create a global center of excellence for granules. Together, the two organizations have won a $5MM grants from the Ohio Third Frontier (TFP) related to developing biobased fatty acid residues into granules technologies. OBIC and The Andersons also have a research commercialization program (RCP) grants from the Ohio Department of Development. The RCP brings together the team of The Ohio Sate University, Syngenta, National Lime * Stone, OIBIC and PSBCo (white castle) – this latter being the spreader technology. Anderson said that Stephen Myers (CEO of OBIC) has been a real inspiration. With Myers’ help, The Andersons is looking at core concepts and how they could apply to other industries.
Birthisel said that the company has looked at algae sources for biomass and will begin to sort out suppliers and technologies starting in 2010. This new source of biomass, already being established within the Ohio supply chain, might be the next wave of products from The Andersons, a company that is very interested in finding alternatives and turning a negative situation into a useful, sensible product.
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The Andersons, Inc. (Nasdaq: ANDE) is a diversified company with interests in the grain, ethanol and plant nutrient sectors of U.S. agriculture, as well as in railcar leasing and repair, turf products production, and general merchandise retailing. Founded in Maumee, Ohio, in 1947, the company now has operations in seven U.S. states plus rail leasing interests in Canada and Mexico. Total revenues in 2007 were $2.4 billion.
The Ohio BioProducts Innovation Center (OBIC) is a Wright Center funded by Ohio Department of Development. OBIC focuses on enhancing Ohio’s leadership position in bioproducts commercialization. A novel market pull model integrates academia in support of comprehensive supply chain collaborations across agriculture, specialty chemical and polymer industry sectors. For more information, bioproducts.osu.edu.
The Ohio Third Frontier was initiated in February 2002. This project is the state’s largest-ever commitment to expanding Ohio’s high-tech research capabilities and promoting innovation and company formation that will create high-paying jobs for generations to come. The 10-year, $1.6 billion initiative is designed to: Build world-class research capacity; support early stage capital formation and the development of new products; and finance advanced manufacturing technologies to help existing industries become more productive. Through the Ohio Third Frontier Project, additional Federal and private sector support can boost the total investment to more than $6 billion.
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