Corn may become another fabric of our lives now that companies are using it to make blankets and clothes.
Cargill Dow LLC, based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, developed a fiber called Ingeo, from corn-based plastic. Clothing and textile companies are knitting, weaving and threading Ingeo into fabrics and household materials to sell to consumers.
Michael O'Brien, a Cargill Dow spokesman, said the product is so versatile that it is possible to furnish an entire house with it.
"You could go to bed at night with pajamas made from it and your sheets and your pillow and your bedding. Put your feet down on carpet made from it in the morning," he said. "You'd have to open your drapes, of course, that are made" from polylactic acid, a biotech plastic that is the raw material for making Ingeo.
The company's plant in Blair, Nebraska, makes the acid by milling corn into starch and then sugar. The sugar is fermented using enzymes to create lactic acid, which is then purified. In the end, what used to be yellow corn is transformed into small, opaque and white plastic pellets of polylactic acid with the potential to be molded into plastic cups, wrappers or spun into the Ingeo fiber.
In January, Cargill Dow announced that 85 companies worldwide -- from clothing makers such as Diesel to blanket manufacturer Faribault Woolen Mills -- were forming a business partnership to develop new products with the patented Ingeo fiber.
Patrick Gruber, vice president of technology at Cargill Dow, says Ingeo is a biodegradable fiber, meaning it can be composted without emitting pollutants into the environment. Unlike many synthetic materials, petroleum-based chemicals are not needed to complete the recipe for Ingeo, which is another plus, Gruber said.
Gruber said partners using Ingeo agreed they would not blend it with harmful chemicals. For example, he said they cannot use chemicals that will form dioxin, a toxic substance that can harm people's health, pollute the environment and potentially lead to cancer.
Ingeo is viewed as a biotech product because of the fermentation process used for making its plastic base. It does not appear that Ingeo has any opponents, said Michael Rodemeyer, executive director for the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, a Washington research group.
"There's increasing interest, not only in the United States but around the world in using biological processes to reduce environmental harm," Rodemeyer said. "This is a case where there can be some very strong claims that can be made about environmental benefits."
Michael Harris, chief executive of Faribault Woolen Mills in Minnesota, said the company is weaving Ingeo, sometimes with wool, to make blankets because it is safer for the environment and because the fiber is made from corn, a locally grown commodity.
"When we looked at all those things, we thought that just seems to fit with our made-in-America type of products," he said. "When we blend it with wool, it takes on the characteristic of wool, so it tends to remember its state," Harris said. "In its purist state, [Ingeo] takes on a very buttery, almost silken type of feel."
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