Airable Labs: From humble beginnings to an expanding future

By Dusty Sonnenberg, CCA, Field Leader, a project of the Ohio Soybean Council and Soybean Check-off

Creating demand for soybeans and soy products is one of the purposes of the soybean checkoff, increasing the return on investment to farmers. The Airable Research Laboratory provides early-stage soy-based materials research. As an independent laboratory owned by Ohio’s soybean farmers and under the oversight of the Ohio Soybean Council, the lab reduces the financial risk for industrial and consumer partners exploring new products using soy. It also accelerates the evaluation process, determining the viability of research and reallocating checkoff dollars to future projects more quickly.

“Airable started in Delaware, Ohio, at Ohio Wesleyan University with the focus of converting soybeans and soybean products to soy bio-based products and consumer industrial products,” said Barry McGraw, founder and chief laboratory officer of Airable Research Laboratory. “We utilize wet chemistry or wet synthesis to do that. Now we are expanding to southern Ohio at Shawnee State University. We signed an agreement with them to build a facility for us. It will provide more chemical engineering and polymer processing. Now we are getting into commodity-type polymers, so large quantities, and figuring out how to utilize soy to convert those materials into polymers.”

One key to the success of Airable is the partnership with industry.

“We have a really good relationship with Dynamic Green Products,” McGraw said. “We developed the chemistry, we developed the formulation soy-based chemistry, and they work on the other end with commercialization, regulatory aspects, and production. They have a great agreement with Stanley Black & Decker, which includes the DeWalt and Craftsman brands.”

In retail stores, consumers will see Airable-developed products under a commercial name.

“A lot of our products will have a DeWalt label on them or a Craftsman label,” McGraw said. “Recently, we also added Mac Tools to the list. We just saw a pallet of aerosolized Mac Tools multi-use type penetrants hit the market. Those are going to be distributed through all their dealers.”

Product distribution is also a big factor in getting new products into the marketplace and available for consumers.

“Some exciting news is that Dynamic Green Products just recently made a deal with Do it Best stores, and now the products should be available in all their hardware stores throughout the United States,” McGraw said. “Not only are we developing these products for one brand, but they’re also going to be in multiple stores. The same is true with Home Depot and the DeWalt brand.”

While Airable Research Laboratory was started by and is primarily funded by checkoff dollars from the Ohio Soybean Council, other states have observed the success and are now helping fund the research.

“Ohio founded Airable Research, and it was fully funded by the Ohio Soybean Council,” McGraw said. “Now we have seven states, including Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Michigan, North Dakota and Kentucky, and Nebraska is considering joining.”