From highways and construction equipment to workshops and industrial facilities, a new generation of soy-based products is demonstrating just how far soybean innovation has come.
For decades, soybean oil has been used in products ranging from biodiesel and lubricants to paints, coatings, tires, and adhesives. Today, researchers and manufacturers are pushing those applications even further, developing products designed not simply to replace petroleum-based ingredients, but to compete on performance, cost, durability, and functionality.
Recent product launches provide a glimpse at where the biobased economy is headed—and how investments in soybean research are translating into new commercial markets for U.S. agriculture.
Keeping Asphalt Moving With Soy
One of the newest products to reach commercialization addresses a problem familiar to anyone working in road construction: hot asphalt sticks to almost everything.
In July 2026, Airable Research Lab, a division of the Ohio Soybean Council, announced a partnership with Warsaw Chemical to commercialize BIO-SLIDE 30, a soy-enhanced asphalt release agent.
The product is designed for use on truck beds, pavers, rollers, tools, and other equipment that comes into contact with hot-mix asphalt. Developed through soybean checkoff-supported research, BIO-SLIDE 30 contains 30% biobased content and was formulated as an alternative to conventional asphalt release agents.
Testing found that the formulation maintained release performance through multiple heating cycles while maintaining coating stability under demanding conditions. Warsaw Chemical is now manufacturing and distributing the product to customers across North America.
The significance extends beyond a single product. It represents another example of soybean research making the difficult transition from promising chemistry in the laboratory to a commercially manufactured product capable of reaching customers at scale.
Soy Moves Into the Toolbox
Another recent commercialization is putting soybean oil into products that could eventually become commonplace in garages, maintenance shops, landscaping operations, construction sites, and fleet facilities.
Dynamic Green Products recently introduced three soy-biobased lubricants under the DEWALT brand with support from the United Soybean Board, Ohio Soybean Council, and Airable Research Lab.
The lineup includes a professional-grade trimmer and blade oil for equipment such as pruners, hedgers, lawnmower blades, and shears; a high-load grease developed for demanding industrial and construction applications; and a multi-use 3-in-1 oil designed to provide penetration, corrosion protection, and lubrication.
All three are USDA Certified Biobased Products and are being introduced nationally, beginning with online availability and expanding into additional retail outlets. They join a soy-biobased DEWALT bar and chain oil introduced in 2024 that has since reached retailers including Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Grainger, and others.
This type of expansion is particularly noteworthy because it moves soy-based chemistry beyond specialized environmental products and into recognizable, everyday product categories.
Rethinking the Materials That Build Our Roads
Some of the most significant opportunities for soy may be measured not in bottles or tubes, but in miles.
SoyLei Innovations has developed a growing family of soybean-oil-based products for asphalt and concrete infrastructure. Its portfolio includes rejuvenators for recycled asphalt, pavement treatments, concrete sealers, and products designed to extend the service life of existing infrastructure.
One product, SIP 1133 PCC Seal, is more than 80% soybean-based and is designed to penetrate concrete pores to improve durability under freeze-thaw and salt exposure. Another, SIP 1134 Asphalt Seal Coat, penetrates pavement to create a moisture barrier intended to help prevent cracking, potholes, and other water-related damage. According to the company, testing at Minnesota’s MnROAD facility found the treatment reduced pavement permeability by 50% while maintaining friction.
Soy-based road technology is also expanding into pavement recycling.
A major Iowa demonstration incorporated soybean oil into an approximately 24-mile road project that included an 8.6-mile section of County Road C14. Soy-derived technology was used in pavement recycling applications that allowed existing asphalt to become part of the rebuilt roadway rather than relying entirely on new materials.
With millions of miles of paved roads across the United States, even relatively small amounts of soybean-derived material incorporated into infrastructure products could represent a substantial new industrial market.
From Fuel Tanks to Infrastructure
The diversity of these products illustrates an important evolution in the soybean industry.
Biodiesel and renewable diesel have created significant demand for soybean oil, but fuel is only one potential market.
Soy chemistry is increasingly being developed for paints and coatings, infrastructure, lubricants, surfactants, adhesives, rubber, polyurethanes, plastics, and other industrial applications.
That diversification matters.
A gallon of soybean oil used in an industrial product can replace or reduce petroleum-derived ingredients while creating another potential market for the oil produced alongside soybean meal. More importantly, successful commercialization can create demand that extends well beyond a single demonstration project or research grant.
A lubricant can become a product on a hardware-store shelf. A concrete treatment can become part of a municipality’s preventative maintenance program. An asphalt additive can become another tool available to road contractors.
Each successful application expands the places where biobased products can compete.
The Next Generation of Biobased Products
Perhaps the most interesting development isn’t any single product. It’s the growing sophistication of the industry behind them.
The conversation surrounding biobased products is increasingly moving beyond simply asking whether petroleum can be replaced. Developers are instead asking whether soybean chemistry can improve performance, extend product life, reduce maintenance, improve worker or environmental characteristics, or provide another economic advantage.
That’s an important distinction.
Sustainability may help open the door for a biobased product, but performance and economics ultimately determine whether customers continue using it.
Products like BIO-SLIDE 30, soy-based DEWALT lubricants, and new soybean-derived pavement and concrete technologies demonstrate what can happen when agricultural research is paired with manufacturers capable of bringing those innovations into established commercial markets.
The soybean may begin in a field, but its potential market increasingly extends to roads, bridges, construction sites, maintenance shops, factories, homes, and countless other places.
And the next major market for U.S. soy may be a product most of us haven’t encountered yet.