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Giant soybean stalks replace wood
Justin Barone, a chemical engineer with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), should change his first name to Jack because he likes giant soybean stalks so much. He’s been working with a seven-foot-high soybean that doesn’t fall down.Barone has already turned some into charcoal briquettes. Now he is working on a substitute for wood. Heating tests show that the cellulose in one giant soybean stalk is as strong as a two-by-four pine board.
The ARS is looking at breeding soybeans in two different fashions. One is to grow soybean stalks with a strong cellulose that will make fibreboard.
The other is to make weak cellulose that is easily broken down by enzymes to make - wait for it - ethanol. The scientists point out that soybeans don’t need large amounts of nitrogen to grow a crop. BF
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