Innovation Sprouts from Soils Research

Automating production is the latest step in the long road from research to commercial reality for an innovation developed by Earl Skogley, a soil scientist and entrepreneur, at UNIBEST Inc. (Universal Bioavailability Environmental/Soil Test) west of Bozeman. The device is a cherry-tomato-sized capsule, filled with unique resin beads, that can change the way soils are analyzed. This technology allows direct measurements in the field, reducing the amount of material transported and handled in the laboratory. It simplifies and improves data collection for agricultural, environmental, and reclamation efforts in soils, water, or other media.

To learn how to scale up production cost-effectively and have solid data to submit for a "Growth through Ariculture" proposal to the Montana Department of Agriculture, Skogley, who retired from Montana State University in 1998 after 35 years of service in the College of Agriculture, naturally turned to the University. This time he tapped expertise from several groups at the College of Engineering to explore feasibility, cost estimates, and a prototype design for a custom-built machine to increase capsule production.

Resin technology for soils research has been a lifetime passion for Skogley. The capsule is based on his doctoral research work on resins four decades earlier and shaped by his experiences as an MSU scientist. In addition to teaching duties, he conducted research, primarily in soil fertility and crop nutrition, and conducted field plots all over the state of Montana.

The Yellowstone National Park fires of 1988 provided some of the early field tests for the capsules where effects of forest burning were studied over two and a half years, Skogley said.

The PST-1 capsules for studying agricultural soils hold resin beads that take up ions from the soil by the same processes that plants use to get their nutrients. The capsules are returned to the lab after a designated time period to examine the inorganic contents that collect within the beads. This simple, accurate measure of availability of elements to a plant, gives agriculturists a way to identify nutrient deficiencies or imbalances, and serves as an aid to diagnosing problems. It can also assist long term crop management planning.

Traditional Methods

This innovation changes long-standing laboratory methods and will require new regulatory protocol for some uses, which has slowed its path to market. Traditionally, a soil sample of a pint or two is removed from a plot, dried, and then ground into powder. A small portion of this sample is then extracted with selected chemical solutions to determine how much of certain nutrients can be removed from the soil in this manner. This does not represent the processes used by plants to get their nutrients, so many years of "statistical correlation" studies have been conducted to learn how to use these data for crop management decisions. This methodology has been used for 60 or 70 years, and there is strong resistance to change, Skogley said. “We knew that standard soil testing was not realistic, not how plants work, but it was the best technology available. It pushed us to develop a more realistic system of soil testing based on true nutrient availability processes."

The improved system requires only the insertion of the resin-filled capsules into the soil. They are later removed and taken to the lab for analysis. The resin is capable of adsorbing and storing ions over time for a more complete look at what is happening in soil under the actual conditions of plant growth, Skogley explained. About 100 capsules make up the weight of a single traditional soil sample, and capsules are easily disposed of after use. When testing near the soil surface, no special equipment is needed, but for deeper sampling a soil access system has been devised to allow easy insertion and retrieval of capsules. This system is manufactured by WECSA in St. Ignatius in western Montana.

Skogley and fellow researchers have spent years putting the resin capsules through the rigors of laboratory and field testing before more recent test marketing and mechanization phases. Skogley has built resources and partners to move the project forward including partners at UIC (UNIBEST International Corporation - www.unibestinc.com) in the Tri-Cities of the Columbia Basin in Washington where many high-value crops are intensively managed under irrigation.

Market Potential

Market feasibility and large scale testing has been underway at UIC. The capsules are being used in high intensity agriculture for potatoes, sweet corn, alfalfa and other crops in Washington. They have been studied for several years for use in rice paddys by the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines with excellent results, according to Skogley. Pretty exciting news for soil scientists who have long known the research methods they used were not ideal for improving soils and harvests.

Even more exciting is that field tests and marketing research have shown that different resins can be used to give the capsule great potential for use in hazardous waste and environmental reclamation efforts for both soils and water. Organic or inorganic materials can be collected, depending on the resin type.

UNIBEST’s ENV resin capsules are used to study environmental contamination. They attract organic substances in soil from both liquid and vapor states to detect, monitor and quantify substances from pesticides, hydrocarbons and a wide range of other organic chemicals, according to the company website ( www.unibest.us). Skogley said there are between 300-400 resin types for scientific uses and practical applications.

The technology has potential to monitor leakage from landfills or buried fuel tanks and for sourcing of pollutants that enter bodies of water, he said. Traditionally, in well testing, as much as 150 gallons of water would be pumped prior to sample collection for analysis; and in contamination situations, scientists would have to dispose of all of it using EPA protocol. The same is true at sites like the Hanford Nuclear Facility where radioactive wastes are an issue. Using resin capsules would greatly reduce the material to be handled and the cost of disposal.

The U.S. Forest Service, universities, and other federal and state agencies are using capsules for numerous studies, and the technology is available for use by home owners for lawn and garden improvement. About one-fourth of the customers are from foreign countries.

Automating the Process

Such positive indicators turned Skogley’s attention to automating the 10-step capsule assembly process to increase output several years ago. Having been an MSU researcher himself, he first enlisted the help of MSU engineering students in a Senior Design Project to explore the feasibility of mechanizing the steps. Student research provided him with cost comparisons and pointed to definite savings in both time and labor.

Next, Skogley sought assistance from Mark Shyne and Dale Detrick at the Montana Manufacturing Extension Center (MMEC) for preliminary design to automate the process of filling both sides of the capsule with resin and joining them together without losing the beads. MMEC also prepared a list of potential design and tool-making firms for his consideration. This information helped complete documentation for a special low-interest loan to have a machine designed and built.

“Mark helped me put together an agricultural marketing proposal for funding a low interest loan,” Skogley said. “He wrote a letter of support that I’m sure helped us land the money -- $50,000 that was not a grant but a low-interest loan.” The proposal included cost estimates for the design and fabrication, a vital piece of data required by the loan agency.

UNIBEST selected Jungst Scientific of Bozeman for the final design and manufacturing of the machine that is now in operation. Skogley said it is fairly complicated in order to perform all 10 steps and balance delicate temperature/time relationships. Two strips of plastic-mesh film are fed into two separate rotating tables of the machine and sliced into squares. In heated forms these squares of film are molded into half-spheres. The half-spheres are filled with resin and a cover film is welded onto one of them. This one is turned over and welded onto the other half-sphere to make a complete sphere. The welding is done using two ultrasonic welders that create enough heat at the point of contact to weld the plastic materials together. Excess film is trimmed in a press and the waste material blown by a puff of air into a receptacle. All of these processes occur automatically and simultaneously.

Until this year, the capsules were made manually, taking 30 hours to make 300 capsules; the new machine cranks out 300 in an hour, he said. The PST-1 capsules for soil testing currently make up about 95 percent of UNIBEST manufacturing demand, but within a year Skogley predicts that will change, as he is working to obtain EPA approval of the technology for use in environmental monitoring.

Providing a demonstration of his first machine’s capability, he remarked, “I’m not sure I could have reached this point without the prototype design work, support, and advisory capacity of MMEC. The Center helped me with contract and detail management while the machine was in development and made sure I was happy with the product -- that it was meeting my needs.”

Skogley envisions a day when 10 machines will be operating. Working with people locally and having them available when needed was a big advantage in launching the automation project, he said, commending the efforts of MMEC engineers and Tom Jungst and Matt McCune at Jungst Scientific.

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