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How to Grow a Better Car
Bioproducts project bridges gaps between farm, factory
BY ANDREW VOWLES
At first glance, there's nothing remarkable about the grey-coloured footbridge over a stream threading through the northeast corner of the Arboretum. But that modest 10-metre-long span installed this fall is the only footbridge in the world made of wood fibre and plastic composites. More than that, it's a symbol of steps being taken by University of Guelph scientists toward developing a research centre in bioproducts — new products made from farm-crop materials.
Under a four-year $750,000 project funded by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA), Prof. Larry Erickson, Plant Agriculture, is leading a research group hoping to develop novel materials from major Ontario crop plants.
Begun last year, this bioproducts research program involves scientists at Guelph and at the universities of Waterloo and Toronto in finding ways to replace wood fibre and petroleum-based materials with agricultural fibre for a variety of uses in decking, siding, auto parts, landscaping, furniture, films and biomedical devices.
A planned pilot manufacturing facility to develop materials and test products will be run by a new company called GAP-C (Guelph Agricultural Fibre/Plastic Composites).
Pointing to the project's industrial partner, Erickson says the collaboration illustrates bridge building between academics and industry in developing new products and in adding value to agricultural materials.
“That's the kind of linkage we need at the University of Guelph,” he says. “We can't do it by ourselves. We need links from that bale of straw in the field to a part in a car or in a bridge.”
Researchers are studying biocomposites made from crop fibres, mostly wheat straw, soy residue and cornstalks. Those three crops make up about 80 per cent of farm crops grown in Ontario.
Initially the team plans to investigate uses of farm-crop waste to make strong but lightweight materials and products for farm applications ranging from grape vine support stakes and fencing to livestock pens and stalls.
“We're trying to add value to Ontario agriculture,” says Leonardo Simon, a chemical engineering professor at the University of Waterloo. “We take material from the field, process it and bring it back to the farmers. The farmers benefit twofold.”
U of G researchers in the Department of Plant Agriculture, the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development and the School of Engineering will also conduct studies at Guelph's research stations and satellite campuses across Ontario.
“There's no other university in Canada with an agricultural college with such a multidisciplinary bioproducts emphasis,” says Erickson.
He points to ongoing research under the program in the use of crop fibres in thermoplastic composites, use of vegetable oils for making polyurethane foams and genetic enhancements of crop plants for biocomposites.
“Wood fibre/plastic composites have grown from virtually nothing 10 years ago to annual sales of over $2 billion in North America in 2004 and are forecast to be $3.5 billion by 2009,” says project partner Frank Maine, a plastics engineer and president of a Guelph-based consulting company.
“The new work being conducted with the collaboration of the universities of Guelph, Waterloo and Toronto will substitute agricultural fibre for the wood fibre.”
The project will also provide graduate student training at the partner universities.
Bioproducts made from local renewable farm crops and crop waste are expected to yield new recyclable materials that take less energy to make than petroleum-based products. Crop-based materials are becoming more prominent in a growing range of products, including packaging, auto parts and building materials.
(The new bridge donated and installed this fall in the Arboretum was made by Burgess Bridge Co. in Hamilton. Its floorboards, uprights and arched railings consist of 70-per-cent polypropylene — the same plastic used in water bottles — and 30-per-cent wood fibre. The structure contains no crop-based materials.)
Funding for this research program has been provided by OMAFRA, Ontario wheat growers, CanAdapt, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the private partner.