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"Modern
Marvels" is a popular TV show on The History Channel that honors inventions and celebrates
technological breakthroughs. Iowa is America's leading producer of corn,
ethanol, and (in good years) soybeans.
Last week, the Hawkeye State hosted a
film crew from "Modern Marvels" that wasn't interesting in examining alternative
fuels or seeing the biggest ear of corn
at the state fair. The subject of the shoot was a biobased grease that's made with
microwaves and probably doesn't taste like popcorn. This patent-pending
manufacturing method is safer and faster than existing technologies, and reportedly results
in higher-quality bio-based greases.
There's
more to Iowa than meets the eye, especially if you're forgetting to look in the
laboratory. In Cedar Falls, the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) houses the National Agricultural Based Lubricants Center (NABL), a facility that's helped
develop over 30 soybean-oil-based industrial lubricants and greases. The subject
of last week's "Modern Marvels" episode was an effort involving NABL and two
Iowa companies, AMTek and EML. UNI may have pioneered the technology, but AMTek built the two 75-Kw
microwave transmitters and an 800-gallon reactor.
Environmental Lubricants Manufacturing (EML), a fast-growing company in Grundy Center, used what AMTEk built to make the bio-based grease.
Pardon
the pun, but are bio-based greases just a flash in the pan? Or is this episode of "Modern Marvels" truly "TV worth watching"?
Source:
University
of Northern Iowa
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Re: Modern Marvels and Biobased Grease
