Seeing green

Environmental and cost benefits are driving the adoption of bio-based and other ‘eco’ materials.

Makers of agricultural equipment, as well as other off-highway machinery, are beginning to reap the benefits offered by the crops their machines help harvest. In this cycle, corn, soybeans (shown above), rapeseeds, or any of a variety of existing crops ultimately are used in one form or another in the equipment itself. The most publicized example of this is as alternative sources of energy, such as ethanol or biodiesel blends, which already are helping to fuel vehicles both on and off road.

Perhaps less well known is harnessing these renewable natural resources to create so-called bio-based materials, which can be used in a range of applications such as seating components or exterior body panels. For chemical company Dow, “biobased materials” mainly refers to the use of natural oils, such as soybean oil, in the production of polyols, which are a primary ingredient in the manufacture of polyurethane foam products. In these formulations, natural-oil polyols can replace some of the traditionally used PO (propylene oxide)-based polyols.