(Boone, IA) — The Farm Progress Show is back in central Iowa — and one of the innovations featured is a 43-thousand square foot asphalt base made from soybean oil and recycled crushed asphalt. Iowa State University engineering professor Eric Cochran says it can be used to recycle old road layers and keeps them out of landfills. He calls the innovation “a new high-value use,” essentially becoming new pavement and eliminating the need to buy new hot mix asphalt. The project on display at the Boone site uses more than 23-hundred pounds of soybean oil from 215 bushels of crushed soybeans. Soybean checkoff dollars funded the soy-based asphalt.
