Closed Working Groups > Bioeconomy Working Group
How was the Bioeconomy Working Group established?
The Bioeconomy Working Group was one of the initial working groups formed in 2003, the first year of the Leopold Center’s Value Chains Partnership project. At that time, the federal BioPreferred program had just been launched. The existing federal legislation, dictated that any federal entity, when buying products — whether it was office furniture, cleaning products, fuel, etc. — was required to purchase a biobased version of the product, if it was available at comparable quality and cost. The legislation further stated that, in order to meet the biobased standard for this federal requirement, the biomass used in the product needed to be produced domestically.
HON Industries, of Muscatine, Iowa, manufactures office furniture and office space dividers. In 2003, 25 percent of HON’s furniture sales were to the federal government, so they were very motivated to develop a line of biobased products. They embarked on a research and development program to make biobased office partitions, biobased chairs, and biobased tack boards. They needed to source the fibers for these products locally, so they were very interested in working with the Bioeconomy Working Group to establish a supply chain for the needed feedstock.
The mission of the Bioeconomy Working Group was to make Iowa a leader in bioproduct feedstock production, materials, engineering, and advanced manufacturing.
The Bioeconomy Working Group met four times each year in Ames. Over time, two of those meetings were held jointly with Advanced Manufacturing Research Collaboration Cluster in other cities across the state. Research and Development Grants were made once yearly. Topics covered in meetings included research reports and updates, business development strategies, and identifying needs in the plant fiber value chain that were to be addressed
- Recruited and convened a group of committed people who worked to make a difference in how value chains developed for biobased businesses in Iowa
- Sponsored the 2004 Biobased Industry Outlook Conference in Ames, Iowa
- Received funds for research and development projects, for support staff and for honoraria to participants
- Developed a sustainability matrix for the biofiber economy in Iowa
- Awarded a total of ten research and development grants, four in 2003 and six in 2004
Research and development projects included:
- Biofibers as strengthening agents and extenders in injection-molded plastics
- Kenaf production methods for Iowa
- Kenaf fiber characteristics in fiber mats
- Flax fiber quality and characteristics
- Transportation logistics of corn stover for biofiber
- Study tours to Texas and Michigan to investigate kenaf production and processing
The Bioeconomy Working Group developed a partnership with AMRCC. This cluster of industries is a collaborative partnership of Iowa end product manufacturers and their Iowa suppliers. Its purposes are to promote the use of advanced technologies, engineering, and processes; conduct collaborative research; and provide user-to-user sharing of technologies and best practices in Iowa. Their goal is to make Iowa the leader in engineering and advanced manufacturing. Members in AMRCC include John Deere; Pella Corp.; HNI (formerly HON) Industries; Fischer Controls; Rockwell Collins Inc.; Shafer Systems, Inc.; Vermeer Manufacturing; Iowa State University; University of Iowa; University of Northern Iowa; Iowa Manufacturing Extension Partnership; Iowa Business Council; Iowa Department of Economic Development; and Iowa community colleges.
AMRCC formed a Biomass Working Group in conjunction with our Bioeconomy Working Group. The objectives were:
- Promote the use and commercialization of bioproduct materials through engineering and advanced manufacturing;
- Conduct collaborative research and development;
- Share knowledge, technologies, and best practices that will benefit the corporations and citizens of Iowa; and
- Encourage the state, county, and local entities to purchase Iowa bio-renewable products.
About three years into the project, the federal legislation requiring biobased product purchases by government entities was changed. The requirement for the biomass to be domestically produced was removed. Therefore, HON (now HNI Industries) and other manufacturers could source their fiber (at a much lower cost) from Indonesia, Vietnam, etc. The opportunity for Iowa producers diminished considerably, as manufacturers like HNI didn’t have to worry about developing the supply chain for domestic fibers — they simply imported the products from offshore.
HON was excellent to work with — they dedicated a number of people in their technology development center to the fiber production and marketing chain project for several years. They respected the farmers and knew they needed to make a profit. However, the company is like most commercial enterprizes — when the legislation changed and they realized that they could import the fibers more easily and cheaply, their interest and support for Iowa farmers developing a system to supply the fibers they needed.
Even if there had been continued market "pull," there were addition issues with local production and processing of kenaf. Among the challenges were:
- Limit to the ability of existing machinery to deliver clean, properly-sized kenaf fibers to the market;
- Profit potential to compete with the bio-renewable energy corn and soybean economy was marginal; and
- Kenaf was and is not supported in the Federal farm program.
Although the working group was not conceived this way, it developed a narrow focus of one crop fiber source and one potential market. This is too narrow a base or value chain to support long-term ongoing work. When the one potential market disappeared, there wasn’t enough incentive to continue the working group.