Erhan and ARS chemist Zengshe Liu developed the hydrogel in studies at ARS's National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research in Peoria. Their invention dovetails with the Center's mission of developing new, value-added uses for corn, soybeans, and other Midwest crops, which will benefit farmers, processors, and consumers. A key focus of the Center is to explore options to reduce the myriad uses of petroleum, which include making fuel and polymers like plastic.
"Today's hydrogels are mainly made of synthetic polymers, like polyacrylic acid, polyacrylamide, and so on," noted Erhan, who leads the Center's Food and Industrial Oil Research Unit. Soybean oil offers the advantage of being a home-grown polymer resource—one that need not be imported or mined from the Earth. Indeed, in 2006, U.S. farmers planted 76 million acres of soybeans, equal to about 38 percent of the world's total oilseed production.