Battelle and Univenture Collaborate to Develop Bioplastic Made From Soybean Meal in Place of Petroleum

Ohio's pursuit of technology jobs - and the effort to reduce dependence on nonrenewable resources - has gone down to the farm.

A process using soybean meal to replace up to 40 percent of the petroleum in plastics - developed by Battelle and licensed to Marysville-based Univenture - is "pure, cool science," said Keith Masavage, chief of strategy and operations at Univenture.

The resulting bioplastic could end up in toys and office supplies.
And if the cost and performance of the new product are as good as officials at Univenture's Biobent division say, "It would mean tons of revenue for the state, tons of jobs," Masavage said. "We could have a whole new biotech industry."

Read the full story as reported in the Dispatch.