Corn replaces oil

Submitted by acohill on Sat, 07/30/2005 - 13:15

The emerging Energy Economy marches on, with another potential breakthrough from a partnership between Dow Chemical and Cargill, the big ag company.

The two firms have figured out how to make plastic from corn. Most plastic is made from oil, with the exception of polypropylene, which is made from castor beans. As an interesting aside, in the oil crisis of 1973, the only plastic that did not suffer from huge price increases was polypropylene.

The new form of plastic is so similar to petroleum-based plastic that it is apparently hard to tell the difference. What's interesting is that among other things, the product is biodegradable. It also only takes a few months to create new raw material (i.e. corn) as opposed to millions of years to produce oil.

If the product is successful, it will be a boon to agricultural areas, as it will help keep the price of corn up, and will help to keep the cost of oil down.