Iowa State Hopes To Build Better Roads By Using Cellulosic Ethanol Co-Products

Ames, IA--Iowa's soil is great for growing corn.

But it's not so great for building roads.

"Soil around the Midwest is mostly soft clay and till deposited by glaciers", said Halil Ceylan, an Iowa State assistant professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering. "It's hardly the bedrock engineers would like for a good, solid roadbed."

And so the soil under Iowa's roads often has to be mixed with chemicals that bind and stabilize soil particles.

While stabilizing soils for road construction is standard practice around the Midwest, there are limits to its effectiveness. Ceylan said costs can be high and current practices only work with certain soil types and site conditions.

So civil engineers are always looking for better, cheaper and more efficient ways to get the job done. Ceylan and Kasthurirangan Gopalakrishnan, a research scientist in civil, construction and environmental engineering, are experimenting to see whether lignin, a co-product of producing ethanol from plant fibers, could be a good soil stabilizing agent. Lignin is the glue that holds plant fibers together

Their research is partially supported by a $93,775 grant from the Grow Iowa Values Fund, a state program that promotes economic development. The Iowa Highway Research Board, Grain Processing Corp. of Muscatine and Iowa State's Office of Biorenewables Programs are also supporting the project.

Grainnet.com, Oct. 18, 2007