Des Moines Register
The state is giving food processing giant Archer-Daniels-Midland a $1 million tax credit for an improbable-sounding project: to turn corn into synthetic spider silk.
The company plans to use its wet mills in Clinton to extract a sugar that can form a basic building block of the product, long seen among materials scientists as a moonshot. Researchers from several companies have tried to emulate spider silk, which is strong, light and stretchy. Manufacturers believe the product could be a lucrative material for clothes, makeup, medical supplies, fake hair and even car parts.
Archer-Daniels-Midland s foray into the speculative field began in October, when it announced a partnership with Spiber Inc., a Japanese company that has tried to make a spider silk product since 2007. Archer-Daniels-Midland will ferment the corn and supply the sugar, which Spiber will turn into a dried, powder-like substance that it has trademarked as Brewed Protein.
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