Corn cobs replace petroleum in coatings and plastics

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...