Researchers and students at Northern Illinois University are working to make the production of ethanol (and the golf courses of America) a little greener.
They are using a byproduct of the ethanol manufacturing process (dried distillers grain with solubles, or DDGS) as filler in plastic products, including golf tees.
Their efforts have attracted funding from the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Agriculture, who are looking for innovative ways to use mountains of the tan, flakey substance that are accumulating as the demand for ethanol (which reduces reliance on petroleum-based fuels and emits fewer greenhouse gases) continues to grow.
The golf tee project has NIU students mixing the DDGS with a biodegradable resin to create a product that will completely degrade if exposed to the elements for as little as one to two months. Looking for a simple, appropriate product to test the mix, Professor Robert Tatara and his student, Nick DiOrio, 21, junior from Wheaton, Ill., majoring in Technology, found a mold for a golf tee in the plastics lab and set to work.
Early results are promising. The tees look and perform like the plastic and wood tees that they are meant to replace. Furthermore, the bio-based filler makes the otherwise expensive biodegradable plastic an affordable, eco-friendly alternative to other tees on the market. In coming months, Tatara and DiOrio plan to investigating using the plastic to make other products including sporting clays and packing peanuts.
Another group of students is experimenting with using DDGS as a filler in other plastic products. So far they have made bar coasters, wall tiles and other items, some with concentrations of up to 90 percent DDGS, that have stacked up well against traditional plastics in tests.
It makes ethanol even more environmentally friendly, Tatara explains, "because we can use this byproduct of the production process to reduce the amount of petroleum based chemicals used to create biodegradable plastics.