Green innovation not always a sure market bet

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It started as an optimistic idea: what if highway signs could be built from biodegradable wood products? In rural areas, where supply is near and are economies in need, what if forest waste could be reused in ways that fostered new jobs within the timber industry?

A scientist's foray into this green-leaning question illustrates the difficult gap between an eco-friendly concept and the realities of bringing it to market.

It's a story Lech Muszynski has told often, and hopes to tell differently some day. The Oregon State University researcher, an associate professor in the Department of Wood Science and Engineering, wanted to learn whether the fuels that accumulate on the forest floor – mostly small branches, needles, tree bark and dirt – could be ground and reused in wood-plastic composites after being cleared away by safety crews.

"There is little that is being done with this material. Originally it was just put in one place and burned right there in the forest where the weather was safe," he said. "Our idea was that this material could be used in products where the carbon is sequestered for a longer time."

The product choice seemed easy. The same state governments charged with burn prevention in forests are also charged with maintaining highways. And highway furnishings such as mileposts, signposts and sound walls are already made with wood-plastic composites.

Commercial wood flour is currently used as the wood ingredient, a ground wood product that's slightly finer than sawdust but coarser than flour. Its combination with plastic is a common recipe in consumer products like plastic decking, car ports and certain types of public infrastructure.

To Muszynski, it seemed science need only solve the question of whether forest fuels, or biomass, would behave the same way as wood flour when ground and combined with plastics. To test the theory, he set his sights on what’s called a bott dot, those little bumps on highways demarcating lanes.

"You can't imagine anything less sophisticated," said Muszynski. He reasoned bott dots could be produced with little skill, in great volume, and absorb vast amounts of biomass. It seemed their production could create rural jobs and supply the government with needed products, likely economically, if related transportation costs could be kept low. The more experienced their producers became, the more likely these rural businesses could branch out into providing other types of highway furnishings: signs, posts, even sound walls.

But while study has so far proven that biomass has the same functional properties as wood flour, and is available in rural communities, getting the idea to market has not been as simple. Bott dots are designed for public sector purchase. But no public agency has agreed to buy them, since they aren’t yet on the market.

"Speaking to private investors is much more difficult because the first question is, 'Can you guarantee me that the public entity is going to buy this stuff?' When of course I can't," said Muszynski.

David Kenney said the dilemma is typical. Kenney is executive director and president of Oregon Built Environment and Sustainable Technologies Center, known as Oregon BEST, which supports innovation in sustainable building products and services and in renewable energy generation.

"One of the challenges is that investors are looking to eliminate as much risk as possible and so they're looking for product ideas to be further advanced… before they’re willing to invest," he said.

In order to get to the marketplace, Kenney said, "We need to get past the gap where research funding traditionally ends."

That’s where Muszynski now finds himself. As his funding for research into biomass highway furniture nears its end – the work was made possible with support from the USDA Wood Products Research Utilization Program – further funding is uncertain. That lack of financial support will make it difficult for Muszynski to continue exploring his idea, even though he believes in its potential.

Though he wants to see the idea succeed, Muszynski said he doesn't feel the same pressures to get the product to market that a business might. There are no funders on the line. There is no pressure to deliver economic results. And his obligation is to his research, his business science.

"I'm certainly going to push it forward as long as it’s tied to some research questions," he said. "Nobody in academia – for the funding sources that I'm eligible for as a scientist – nobody is going to give me some money to start up a business on my own."

Kenney said Oregon BEST hopes to remedy such dilemmas, offering researchers help with financial and business plans and developing pricing models, marketing plans, and direct-to-business strategies.

"Those are all things that show an investor that you've got a great product," said Kenney.

Oregon BEST is also offering $225,000 in grants through December 2011 to help researchers bridge the gap between where research funding ends and commercialization begins. Muszynski aims to apply, but will qualify only after he finds at least one curious industrial partner.

"This is something I cannot get alone," he said.

He is asking the Oregon Department of Transportation for support, petitioning the agency for a grant to build a demonstration project, a sound barrier made from woody biomass on an Oregon highway. ODOT is considering the idea through a multi-stage process expected to take months.

Lee van der Voo, lvdvoo*at*gmail.com, is a freelance writer for Sustainable Business Oregon.