Southeast Iowa Chemical Plant Will Use Corn to Make Fabric

(Eddyville, IA) — Cargill and a German company are teaming up to build a chemical plant in southeast Iowa to make fabric. Cargill development manager Jon Veldhouse says, “Cargill and Helm have formed a joint venture investing up to 300-million dollars in this new facility in Eddyville to produce B-D-O from corn.” He says B-D-O is used to make Spandex and elastic in shirts and socks. Veldhouse says the new technology Cargill and Helm will be using will drastically reduce greenhouse gases. Using corn sugars instead of petroleum or coal to make B-D-O is expected to reduce emissions and C-O-2 production by up to 93 percent. Cargill expects construction on the new Eddyville facility to begin later this year and it should be up and running in 2024.