IPRT Company Assistance Success Story
Finding New Applications
for Soy Wax
SoyaWax International, LLC, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, manufactures soybean wax for use in candles, shipping several million pounds of its SoyaWax product to 25 nations annually. While soy wax is ideal for container candles, the original formulation was unsuitable for making tapers and large pillar candles.
So the company came to Iowa State University and IPRT to help it to develop a “second generation” of the wax to tap into these other candle applications and to open significant new applications in paper-coating and packaging.
“I have had a 10-year history of working with various faculty, staff and facilities at ISU,” says Michael Richards, company founder. “IPRT is an exceptional resource for economic development in Iowa.” To help the company, Lynne Mumm, manager of IPRT’s Technology Commercialization Group, set up a study by Toni Wang, a professor in food science and human nutrition.
“Lynne has always been very responsive to our needs as a small Iowa business,” Richards says. “She provides great communication to bridge between the academic and business worlds.”
Wang and Iowa State’s Center for Crops Utilization Research’s pilot manufacturing plant will continue collaborating with SoyaWax on the project. “SoyaWax International has great respect for the knowledge, experience and dedication of Dr. Wang,” Richards says. “We have worked with her for eight years, and intend to continue our working relationship as we develop SoyaWax products further.”
The company, which was devastated by the Iowa floods of 2008, is concurrently cleaning up from the disaster and actively working with Iowa State to move the new soy wax formulations from the lab to commercial applications. SoyaWax recently received a Demonstration Fund grant from the Iowa Department of Economic Development to support scale-up of the manufacturing process.
“With the competitive edge that we gain from our alliance with ISU, we are in a position to gain a growing market share in the global wax market,” Richards concludes. “We intend to continue a long-term working relationship with IPRT and ISU.”
