EDMONTON – A car made from hemp will roll down the Alberta highway next year as part of the $10 million X prize competition to develop a car with more than 100 miles per gallon fuel efficiency.
Motive Industries of Calgary is building the car body from hemp to make the car lighter, cheaper and greener.
It’s just one of the products scientists at the Alberta Research Council in Edmonton and Vegreville are helping develop using material from Alberta farms and forests.
“Our role is to help develop a fibre-based car body,” said John Wolodko, a research scientist with the Alberta Research Council in Edmonton.
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Wolodko, in the advanced materials section of the research council, is looking at combinations of plastic, industrial hemp, straw, flax and wood fibre to develop alternate products to 100 percent plastic or fibreglass parts.
While the technology for developing car parts made from straw and wood are accepted in Europe, Canadian car manufacturers are waiting for a stable and steady supply, said Jan Slaski, a crop physiologist with ARC’s Vegreville centre.
“They don’t care if there is a drought,” said Slaski during a news conference June 4 to announce a $15 million Alberta Biomaterials Development Centre.
Most of the money will buy equipment that can transform large amounts of fibre into material that can be used in product testing. Alberta’s departments of advanced education, sustainable resource development and agriculture have committed to supporting the centre for three years.
At the end of the third year, the goal is to have the centre self-sustaining with contracts from small and medium-sized companies hiring the scientists to help develop products using biomaterials.
Doug Horner, minister of advanced education, said the new centre will allow Alberta businesses to take advantage of new growth opportunities in the growing green economy.
“The centre will help bring products to the marketplace,” said Horner.
New technology can break the wood or straw down to a molecular level and build it back up into a multitude of products.
Also on display were pieces of concrete, insulation and injection moulded plastic pieces from renewable fibres.
“The new products have strength and endurance,” he said.
Ted Morton, minister of sustainable resource development, said in an era of cheap oil and gas, it’s easy to make inexpensive parts from fuel. Creating parts made from renewable sources that are biodegradable at the end of their life is the way of the future.
“This will be a major trend in coming decades,” said Morton.
Wolodko said it’s their job to assess which fibres work best, which feedstocks are most available and which ones have the best cost benefit for farmers and manufacturers.
