Plant-derived fuels and industrial products play a key role in the U.S. plan to cut dependence on foreign petroleum by boosting production and use of domestic energy and feedstock sources. Ohio — abundant with agriculture and food-processing biomass; and a leader in chemicals, plastics, and rubber materials production — is perfectly positioned to help. Now, several OARDC initiatives are changing the chemistry of the state’s economy.

One initiative is the Ohio BioProducts Innovation Center (OBIC), which works to link the agbiosciences with chemical-conversion and advanced-materials technologies to create a high-quality, renewable supply of specialty industrial compounds such as plastics, paints, lubricants, and solvents.

To effect this change in Ohio’s economy, OBIC is bringing new technology to accelerate research in the areas of plant genetics, biomass processing, and chemical conversion. It is also focusing a part of the university’s soybean breeding program to look for traits and varieties targeted at industrial applications, which is expected to benefit farmers in the near future.

Through programs such as OBIC, OARDC is positioning itself as a leader in the emerging “integrated bio-economy,” OBIC Director Stephen Myers said.

Another initiative that’s turning up the voltage is the Biomass-to-Energy research project, whose purpose is to take animal manure (an environmental concern) and food-processing leftovers (an expensive waste-disposal issue) and convert them to clean, renewable energy. Benefit to the Buckeye State: Ohio’s biomass is capable of producing at least 65 percent of the state’s residential electricity needs.

This project explores two different technologies — biodigesters, which turn waste into biogas, and fuel cells, which can use that biogas and other feedstocks (such as soybean oil) to generate energy. Fuel cells are a technology in which Ohio is enthusiastically investing to become a national leader. And this OARDC project fits perfectly into the state’s plan, said animal scientist Floyd Schanbacher, one of the project leaders.

“The fuel cell industry would have never thought of themselves as interacting with agriculture,” Schanbacher said. “But OARDC’s decades of experience in anaerobic digestion have helped make this link between wastestreams, biodigesters, and fuel cells as a way to store and utilize renewable energy.”

Schanbacher’s system utilizes solid-oxide fuel cells developed by Cleveland-based Technology Management, Inc. This type of fuel cell can handle a variety of fuels that are not clean, which is the case of bio-renewables. “This makes solid-oxide fuel cells one of the best candidates for making fuel cells affordable,” Schanbacher said. The project will soon build a unique facility on OARDC’s Wooster campus, which will include a set of 1,600-gallon anaerobic digesters as well as solid-oxide fuel cells. Also planned is an industrial-sized facility that will allow industries to test their feedstocks and calculate their potential energy yield.

Both OBIC and the Biomass-to-Energy project were created thanks to Third Frontier grants totaling more than $13 million, plus federal funds. OBIC is also funded in part by the AgBiosciences Innovation Grant (ABIG) program, a joint venture between OARDC and OSU Extension.