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Last December, Segerstrom hopped on a StalkIt 58Five longboard and was pulled behind an SUV to showcase the durability and stability of his composite longboards. He set a new Guinness World Record for Speed on a Towed Skateboard at 78.1 mph that day.
When Lane Segerstrom heard that three professors at the University of Illinois had developed a corn-based structural composite technology, he was intrigued. He grew up on a farm in Iowa and has been inventing and taking products to the marketplace for 10 years. He instantly recognized the huge opportunity, called the University and secured an exclusive licensing agreement to make and commercialize products out of pressed corn board, a product he dubbed CornBoard.
“The potential is mind-boggling,” says Segerstrom, founder and CEO of CornBoard Manufacturing Inc. (CBMI), headquartered in McKinney, Texas. “The supply of corn by-products is endless and renewable every year, and we have a consumer that is ready and willing as long as the price and the quality is there.” While Segerstrom doesn’t think CornBoard is going to replace wood or pressed wood, he is positive it can help reduce additional demand and preserve the resource of wood as the world’s population increases.
CornBoard is made from corn stover, the biomass normally left in the field after the commercial harvest of corn crops. The stalks, leaves and husks are combined with a resin and bonded under heat and pressure to create CornBoard – comparable to engineered wood. “We can make a board that is stronger than a conventional oriented strand board, without getting too stiff, or too dense or heavy,” Segerstrom says, prefacing that CBMI is very much in the beginning stages and is currently working with the University of Illinois on getting the data and documentation to prove the material’s properties. Right now, they are using the leaves and the husk of the corn and pressing it into a non-formaldehyde resin.
StalkIt longboards and potential future CornBoard products
The first commercial product CornBoard Manufacturing, Inc. launched was the StalkIt longboard. Segerstrom started with this piece of sports gear to demonstrate the strength and versatility of the new biomass composite material. “We wanted people to say, ‘if you can make a skateboard than I’d probably be pretty good in a chair or a piece of furniture and ultimately in building materials,’” he explains. The high-performance skateboards have a 100-percent CornBoard core laminated between a top and bottom layer of ash and poplar vertical. An aluminum strip connecting the front and rear trucks helps reduce vibration at high speed. “The combination of these materials working together makes for a strong, rigid and lighter weight board than traditional longboards,” says Segerstrom, who himself is an avid skateboarder.
As supplier and manufacturer, he plans to specifically design and engineer CornBoard for different applications, using different combinations of parts of the corn and incorporate different ingredients for waterproofing, mold resistance, pest resistance and fire-rating based on the use of the final product. “We really want to control our brand and its integrity,” Segerstrom says. “Because green is hot and everybody wants to be involved in it. You may find somebody that cuts corners and reflects on our CornBoard brand; you can really get tarnished quickly.”
The entrepreneur’s market strategy is to start out with higher-end niche products to build consumer confidence and perfect CornBoard before progressing into larger markets like furniture or building materials. “The opportunity is incredible. Thousands and thousands of products are made from pressed wood, and the market is ripe for a more sustainable alternative. Competitive pricing will come with efficiency.” Case in point, CBMI just received the bio-preferred label for CornBoard pallets, opening the door to sell products directly into the government, which is mandating the purchase of preferred biomass products when available. Segerstrom says he has no competitors.
CornBoard as an eco-friendly composite
Perceptively aware of the contradiction between the corn industries bad rap and his brand’s green image, Segerstrom says it’s not his fight to fight. “I think we are helping. It’s about what we can do as a leader to inspire other companies to be better stewards of their resources. It’s a competitive advantage.” CBMI actually does help its farmers become more sustainable. The manufacturer bales only approximately 20 percent of the stover and leaves the remaining stalks on the field to prevent erosion and to provide fertilization. “We protect the integrity of the land and sustainability over a long time,” he adds. In removing part of the decomposing biomass, CBMI sequesters about 1.5 tons of CO2 per acre that’s now not emitted into the atmosphere.
CornBoard production plants are designed to need about seven square miles of stover or less to supply them. Segerstrom avows his company will scale to be “one of the most efficient and positive carbon-negative footprints on the planet.” Excited and open to look at unique opportunities and promote the composite industry as a whole, CMBI wants to be a positive force in conveying the message that we have to look at different creative ways to become more sustainable as an industry and start changing practices to preserve natural resources around the world.
If you like this story, read about an Iowa professor making crops into composites.
Sandra Henderson is a freelance writer based in Denver, Colo. Email comments to sandrahenderson@mac.com.
