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The Indiana Soybean Alliance and United Soybean Board are working to develop new products to increase the value of soybeans. One such product that uses soybeans to help firefighters do their job more safely is called SoyFoam.
“It’s a firefighting foam made from soy flour that is safer to the environment and safer to the users because of the PFAS (synthetic chemicals) that are in the firefighting foam,” according to Pat Mullooly, President of the Wisconsin Soybean Marketing Board.
The United Soybean Board began investing checkoff dollars into SoyFoam in October 2022. A year later, the U.S. Forest Service and Department of Defense began testing the product.
The foam concentrate is certified 100-percent biodegradable, 84-percent biobased, and made using U.S.-grown soybeans.
“We were able to talk to the chemist who developed SoyFoam and he said, ‘I knew I could get soy to foam up, it was just a matter of getting the right formulation for those firefighters,” he said.
“Three percent of that solution that comes out of the end of their hose is this SoyFoam. It foams up and it coats and smothers that fire out.”
And much like other products that have been developed by the The Indiana Soybean Alliance and United Soybean Board—such as PoreShield™ concrete protectant and soy-based shoes made by Skechers, the firefighting SoyFoam presents another new market for soybean producers.
“It’s not a huge market of soybeans as far as usage. There was a figure of 12 million bushels a year to start—in the grand scheme of things that’s not a lot—but we all know somebody that’s had a fire or has a firefighter in their family, so it really touches all walks of life and it really could be a big deal and a very good product for the environment and for the safety of those firefighters,” says Mullooly.
SoyFoam will be manufactured by Premier Polymers based in Dalton, Georgia.