Joshua Bryant – ASMSA Winner & West Central Region Science Fair Winner
Joshua Bryant, Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts
Mentor: Shane Thompson
Category: Material Sciences
Project Title: Building the Future, Soybean Waste Construction Material
Abstract:
A soybean hull is the thin outer layer of a soybean. Soybean hulls are a by-product of soybean processing facilities. The soybean hulls have limited uses and are often discarded or fed to livestock.
This project is an attempt to create a use for soybean hulls while eliminating the use of nonrenewable or severely depleted resources. The soybean hulls were procured from a facility in Helena, Arkansas. Two 19 Liter buckets were fill with soybean hulls and several containers of water-based adhesive. The soybean hulls and the water-based adhesive were combined to form a sheet of material.
A separate sample of soybean hulls was also combined with a non-environmentally friendly adhesive to determine whether water-based adhesives were effective. The soybean hull sheets were placed under stress to determine its resistance to weight. The soybean material data that was recorded was compared to data collected for other materials. The data showed soybean material is too low stress wise to be considered for building but would make a decent substitute for cork.