I grew up in Hammond, Indiana. I know what this state is made of — literally. Corn. And not just in the fields. In the economy, in the identity, in the work ethic of the people who plant and harvest it every single year.
So when AgriNovus Indiana invited me onto their Agbioscience podcast to talk about what we’re building at FiberX, I didn’t have to think twice. This is exactly the kind of conversation Indiana needs to be having.
Watch the full podcast on YouTube Here
After every corn harvest, farmers are left with millions of tons of stalks, husks, and leaves sitting in their fields. It’s called corn stover, and for most of agricultural history, it’s been treated as an afterthought — something to plow back under or leave to decompose.
We see it differently.
At FiberX, corn stover is the raw material for a new generation of industrial feedstocks. We’re processing it into high-performance fiber that can replace up to 50% of petroleum-based polypropylene in plastic components — while actually increasing strength and reducing costs for manufacturers. And that’s just the beginning. Our lignin biorefinery platform, developed in partnership with Purdue University’s Davidson School of Chemical Engineering, is unlocking an even bigger opportunity: bio-based resins, coatings, adhesives, and specialty chemicals derived from what used to be left on the ground.
In the podcast, I talk through how this whole thing started, what it takes to build a supply chain from scratch in the middle of farm country, and why I believe FiberX is sitting at the beginning of something genuinely big — a new industry for Indiana.
A few things I cover that you might find interesting:
Why corn stover? It’s the largest post-harvest agricultural residue stream in the United States — and the world. Nobody had figured out how to turn it into something consistently useful at industrial scale. We’re doing that now.
The “residue to revenue” idea. Farmers grow corn. They’ve always had to deal with the stover. We’ve built a model where that residue becomes a revenue opportunity — for them and for us. It’s good economics, and it keeps a new industry anchored right here in Indiana.
What manufacturing partners actually care about. It’s not ideology. It’s performance and cost. Our fiber outperforms synthetic alternatives in specific applications, and it does so at a lower cost. That’s the conversation that gets manufacturers to the table.
The Purdue partnership. We didn’t start with a lab and work our way out. We started with proven university IP and have been scaling it toward commercial reality, which is a faster and more capital-efficient path than building from zero.
AgriNovus does a tremendous job shining a light on the companies and people driving Indiana’s agbioscience economy forward. I’m proud FiberX earned a place in that conversation — and prouder still that we backed it up by winning their Producer-Led Innovation Challenge.
If you want to understand where FiberX is headed and why we think the timing is right, this podcast is the best 30-minute investment you can make.
And if you’re a manufacturer looking for a better feedstock, an investor interested in what’s next in bio-based materials, or a potential partner in the agbioscience space — reach out. We’re just getting started.
— Dave Skibinski, CEO, FiberX
FiberX is a biomass refinery based in Merrillville, Indiana. We convert post-harvest agricultural residue into high-performance industrial materials.
