Laser Toner Goes Green With Soy

“Going Green” is gaining momentum and dominating worldwide headlines. A recent announcement affecting the office print business helps underscore rapidly evolving “green” technology.

PRC Technologies, a small startup company in Standish, Maine, says it’s the first U.S. company marketing laser cartridges using replacement toners manufactured from soybean oil.

Laser cartridges are supplied by PRC Technologies under the SoyPrint brand at prices comparable to brand name, oil-based versions now available. While soy ink has been around for a while, this is the first time a soy-based option has involved laser cartridges.

Skeptics aside, the potential benefits of soy toner are worth noting. First, it’s easier to recycle paper printed from soy-based toner. Deinking petroleum-based toners consumes more energy and takes longer. Second, and more important, soy toners will cost less than the standard oil-based toners. Soybeans are a renewable resource and prices should predictably remain more stable over the long term.

Industry pundits claim it takes about 2 liters of oil to make one pound of toner. Resins, such as styrene-butadiene and acrylics, are often used to polymerize toner.

Market analysts say about 100 million pounds of black toner is consumed annually in the United States. This is equivalent to about 100 million cartridges based on one pound of toner for each cartridge. It’s also been demonstrated that color toners can be manufactured from soybean oil.

Battelle, an independent research company in Columbus, Ohio, developed the soybean-based toner and created a marketable version in 2004. Much of the research is funded by the Ohio Soybean Council. Over 30,000 farms in Ohio grow the crop and are constantly seeking new applications.

It’s no secret that most of the major original equipment manufacturers, from Hewlett-Packard to IBM to Canon, derive most of their revenue from high-profit toner and ink supplies. They claim they’re monitoring the situation but don’t have immediate plans to change to “green supplies.”

Hewlett-Packard said in a statement that its research suggests bio-materials “have not met HP’s high performance (print) standards and may not be appropriate for many printing applications.’’

Another printer manufacturer, Lexmark International Inc., said it’s in the early stages of investigating corn (toner also can be derived from corn oil) and soy-based resins but declined to elaborate.

The Ohio Soybean Council claims many OEM printer manufacturers are researching soy and other bio-derived toners. Council representatives also say these companies most likely do not intend to immediately market the environmentally-friendly products.

Instead, the OEMs will try to prevent market share loss rather than change their product lines. This may mean that when soy-based products hit the market, OEM manufacturers may try to compete with their own soy-derived toner but only when they are forced to do so.

We believe most printer OEMs perceive they have much too much profit to lose if they risk changing their “black gold” to “green green.”

The remanufacturing industry, in the past, has led consumers into thinking “green” -- from recycling cartridges to using compatible ink and toners. The stage is now set for a new bio-based toner that will most likely further eat into the aftermarket of OEM suppliers.

Note: This post came from TechMan, a contributor who follows industry trends.