UNIFY
About
UNIFY is a stakeholder-driven research, extension, and education initiative led by The Ohio State University to evaluate a universal biomass logistics system that can serve multiple crops with a common harvest, storage, and preprocessing approach. By reducing dependence on crop-specific equipment and streamlining supply chains, UNIFY aims to accelerate growth of sustainable feed, fiber, and biofuel industries.
Transforming Agriculture Supply Chains for the Bioeconomy
UNIFY is transforming the future of agriculture with a universal feedstock supply chain system designed to streamline how crops are harvested, stored, and processed. By testing this innovative approach across major crops that represent nearly half of U.S. cropland, UNIFY aims to reduce costs, eliminate logistical barriers, and make sustainable production of feed, fiber, and biofuels more efficient and profitable. Beyond the technology, the project is building the next generation bioeconomy workforce through education, extension, and stakeholder engagement, creating a pathway for widespread adoption of universal agricultural solutions.
Goals
- Assess multi-sector stakeholder needs and attitudes towards UNIFY system adoption
- Optimize the UNIFY system performance for six crops (corn, soybean, camelina, cotton, hemp (fiber), switchgrass)
- Determine economic, environmental and social sustainability of the UNIFY system
- Design and deliver extension curricula to shift from conventional systems to sustainable alternatives such as UNIFY
- Create a pathway for a diverse and inclusive bioeconomy workforce through industry-relevant curricula
Project Summary
By the end of this project, we will have evaluated the agronomic, environmental, and technical performance of the UNIFY system and determined the factors affecting its sustainability. We will also have assessed the needs of stakeholders from multiple sectors, documented shifts in their knowledge and behavior regarding conventional systems versus UNIFY and determined the adoption potential of the UNIFY system. Demonstration of the UNIFY system at scale is expected to catalyze adoption of it, enabling producers and industries to tap into burgeoning biobased markets and improve the resilience of the bioeconomy via increased sustainable, climate-smart production of feed, fiber and biofuels. Implementation of the bioeconomy curricula will provide a trained workforce that will further enable adoption of UNIFY.
Feedback from producers, industry and bioeconomy intermediaries will help identify strategies to progress the UNIFY system and its technology development, education and extension activities. Focus groups and individual interviews are underway, and an adoption study is in development to identify the types of producers that are likely to use the technology and their preferred conditions.
The UNIFY project will optimize our existing, patent-pending harvester prototype that was developed and tested as part of a prior USDA grant. An additional prototype will also be built to facilitate UNIFY harvest activities in Mississippi.
Field trials are underway for crops in Ohio and Mississippi. At each location, the team will assess baseline soil health and nutrient levels and monitor trials to assess crop progression and proper harvest stages. Agronomic, environmental and technical performance of UNIFY harvest and post-harvest logistics will be compared to conventional methods for each crop.
Each year, harvested UNIFY bales will be evaluated for use as livestock feed, fiber and fuel. Preprocessing and storage efforts will include corn bales for livestock feed, oilseeds for biofuel, retting and decortication of hemp for technical fiber, and cotton for textile fiber.
Data generated on storage and preprocessing performance and quality of UNIFY crop bales for feed, fiber and fuel will inform other project objectives such as the sustainability assessment, further optimization of the equipment, harvest and post-harvest performance, storage method and preprocessing technology information for extension and education activities, and inputs for an adoption study. Producers and preprocessing industry representatives will provide input and feedback throughout the project’s harvest and post-harvest seasons.
We will assess the holistic economic, environmental, and social sustainability of the UNIFY system compared to the conventional practices for the selected crops.
The education objective focuses on creating a pathway for a diverse and inclusive bioeconomy workforce by developing, piloting, and implementing industry-relevant curricula for training middle school through college students.
A middle to high school curricula is in development, with first piloting planned for autumn 2026.
Opportunities for inter-institutional internship exchanges will be available for summer 2027.