A company that began as a University of Wisconsin research project is preparing to give farmers and forest managers a new market. Dr. Kevin Barnett and his partners started Pyran, which makes chemicals used in paint and coatings including pentanediol. “The exciting part is we can make these paint ingredients from renewable agricultural feedstock like corn cobs and wood chips instead of the petroleum that they’re made from today, and really importantly, we can do this at a lower cost than you can make it from petroleum today.”
Barnett tells Brownfield most people wouldn’t believe the number of products that use petroleum, like paint, vinyl flooring, car components, and more, but his team is now able to make these same chemicals from agricultural products.
