What do you do with a hill of beans? Fight fires, say Minnesota soybean groups
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A number of fire departments around Minnesota are trying out a new firefighting foam that’s made from soybeans.
This spring, the Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council launched its campaign titled “Planting to Protect: From Farm to Flame” as a way for farmers to add demand and diversify product options for soybeans through a new soy-based firefighting foam called SoyFoam.
The council has been working to support special products made from soybeans at a time when volatility in export markets has been hurting farmers.
"We can't get rid of a lot of them at the moment because of tariffs, and countries aren't buying,” said Patrick Sullivan, the council’s director and secretary. “Every outlet we can find to use more soybeans and soy oil, it's great for everybody."
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The council says SoyFoam is just as effective as traditional foams without the health and environmental dangers caused by forever chemicals known as PFAS, which the older generation products contained.
Ryan Muchow, Fergus Falls fire chief, said water is the most commonly used in applied fire suppression material because it’s cheap, readily available and has a very good cooling ability.
But foams are also an important part of a firefighter's tool kit.
“Foam comes into play after the fire is mostly suppressed or a lot of that heat is knocked down, then we start introducing the foam,” he said.
Muchow said foam helps water increase its effectiveness. And it creates a blanket over fires caused by flammable liquids like fuels. Acting as a protective layer, it can also be sprayed onto buildings or trees near a blaze to cut down on the chances of them catching fire.
The campaign to distribute SoyFoam to fire departments is part of a checkoff program. When farmers sell their soybeans, a portion of each sale goes into the checkoff fund. Some of those funds are then used to buy the SoyFoam product from a Georgia-based company called Cross Plains Solutions.
The state soybean council works with various county soybean boards from around the state to get the foam into the hands of their local fire departments for them to try.
“If they like it, departments can make the switch by ordering SoyFoam through whatever supplier they use for their equipment,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan, who has been a volunteer firefighter for 30 years, is excited to help promote a firefighting foam that won’t harm firefighters or the environment.
“That's one of the real benefits to the SoyFoam, is it's PFAS-free,” he said. “So, it's OK for the environment, and it's probably a lot better for the person that's going to be around it using it, also."
The dangers of PFAS
Minnesota began phasing out the use of PFAS in firefighting foams in 2020.
According to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, all firefighting foams used in the state are required to be PFAS free by January 2026.
The Minnesota State Fire Marshal will allow two exceptions after that deadline with a waiver. They are fixed firefighting systems in airport hangars and at oil refineries.
Mike Youngerberg is the senior director of product development and commercialization for the Minnesota Soybean program. He said soybean protein is quickly replacing items traditionally made using forever chemicals.
“That's where the advantage now comes,” Youngerberg said. “We can make a similar product that performs as well and is safer to use."
Youngerberg also said SoyFoam is the first and only Greenscreen Certified Gold fire foam in the country.
“It's the federal program that analyzes products for their toxicities and a whole range of other things, exposures and everything else,” he said.
Youngerberg said, for now, the soybeans used to make SoyFoam are outsourced from other states. But as Cross Plains Solutions looks to expand its processing plants, that could change very soon. Until then he said raising product awareness is key.
“Our goal is to make sure that it gets out to as many of the fire departments across the state of Minnesota, whether it's rural departments, whether it's city departments,” he said. “We've had conversations with various entities in the state of Minnesota, working through our Department of Agriculture and others, to get the word out.”
Donations to fire departments
Since the campaign’s launch, the Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council has worked with 44 county soybean boards to donate more than 400, 5-pound pails of SoyFoam to a wide range of fire departments. That’s equal to about 2,000 gallons.
Muchow’s fire department in Fergus Falls is one of them.
Muchow said he likes the rigorous testing SoyFoam has gone through to meet the requirements for both Class A and B fires.
“A for ash. So really, if it leaves an ash, it's more likely a Class A fuel. Think about your campfires, wood burning, paper burning. There's usually some form of remnants after that in the form of ash,” he said. “Class B, think about a barrel, like fuels, petroleum fuels, they come in barrels, typically, or something like that.”
Muchow said he hasn't worked with the SoyFoam product yet. But word of mouth from fire chiefs who have is a bit mixed due to its high viscosity.
“They described it as maybe a little more syrupy than what we're used to, of traditional firefighting foam, but nonetheless, [it] seemed effective,” he said.
Muchow’s crews’ wildland trucks are outfitted with SoyFoam to use on potentially stubborn wood fires. And they plan to switch over to it once their current stock of a different foam runs out.
“This product looks to be a win on several fronts: farmers, firefighters’ health and safety, property and the environment,” he said.
