Wanted: Prairie oilseed flax fibre seeks a new home, in a neighbourhood away from fire and straw choppers, in a community with multiple industrial employment opportunities.
If flax straw were looking for a new place to live, it would find the premises at 161 Jessop Ave. in Saskatoon pretty appealing.
That’s the address of Biolin Research Inc., a small flax fibre research company and the location of Canada’s only flax fibre processing pilot plant, Crop Fibres Canada.
In a modest building in an industrial park, Biolin president Alvin Ulrich champions the potential for the oilseed’s notorious byproduct, straw, using science and market analysis.
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Flax straw has been an issue for oilseed growers and it has seldom been viewed as a potential revenue source.
The staw’s relatively high tensile strength and long strands of fibre have plagued rotating shafts on farm machinery and plugged seed drills on many farms in Western Canada.
But the idea that flax straw could add value to flax crops is starting to catch on.
The potentially valuable fibres develop in the cortical region of the stem, between the outer cell layers and the inner core, and are held in place with a waxy pectin material that must be broken down before removal.
Flax fibre in the clothing industry has evolved from wrinkle prone linen into knitwear and blended fabrics that mimic cotton.
Compared to cotton, flax fibre is three times stronger.
Chinese garment manufacturers have expanded their use of European linen fibre in recent years as cotton supplies and prices become more volatile.
Cottonized, specially processed flax sells for $900 to $3,500 per tonne, and most of it around $1,700 to $2,300, said Ulrich.
Cottonized flax fibres are made after the initial flax fibres are extracted. The best flax fibre, long line, not cottonized, sells for up to $4,000, he said.
Most oilseed flax varieties contain 15 to 20 percent recoverable fibre compared to 25 to 35 percent of a fibre flax variety. Yields of straw from fibre varieties are also higher at up to three tonnes per acre compared to oilseed types at between one and two tonnes.
“We can produce, in theory, from 150 kilograms to 400 kg per acre of fibre from an oilseed flax crop …. cottonized flax yield after processing is between 60 and 90 percent of that,” Ulrich said.
John Foulk of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Research Service in Clemson, South Carolina, has been adding flax fibre to cotton and is creating yarns that are woven into moisture management capable cloth.
“It aids in wicking moisture away from the skin. This is important in making cotton both cooler and warmer,” Foulk said.
USDA has also begun testing flax fibre for use in plastic composites, an area that the Canadian industry has dabbled with for more than a decade.
Plant fibres are beginning to replace spun glass and rock wool for several reasons, not the least of which is the cost of production. High energy prices are forcing plastics and other manufacturers away from man-made fibres due to their large energy requirements in production.
Consumers in North America and Europe are also seeking products that contain increased levels of natural materials, while governments in Europe are demanding recyclability in everything from auto parts to packaging.
Ulrich feels the Canadian industry has the potential to establish itself as the industry leader because the majority of the 3.3 million acres of oilseed flax grown in North America is on the Prairies and most of that in Saskatchewan.
The Saskatchewan Flax Development Commission, Sask Flax, with funding from the federal and provincial governments, has worked with Biolin to build the pilot plant.
“We need to know more about how to process and evaluate oilseed varieties so that we can offer them to the marketplace,” said Ulrich.
“There are existing products in these markets and we have to be capable of providing consistent quality and volume to buyers. Otherwise they won’t want to take a chance on flax fibre,” he said.
Cleaning and separating the flax straw is done using custom-made equipment.
Delmar Rempel designs and builds it at Biolin.
“In some cases the equipment to process the fibre exists but it might be too large or too expensive. In other cases it doesn’t exist in a design that will accomplish what we need, especially for a pilot plant. It’s very creative work,” he said.
Creating is what Biolin and the pilot plant are all about. Ulrich and his associates need to solve the mechanical issues of designing and operating the pilot plant that separates flax fibre from shives.
As well, Biolin is testing and building experimental retting equipment to prepare the fibre for processing.
Ulrich said good quality fibre begins in the field. The flax needs to be grown to maximize height and uniformity.
Harvesting seed should remove the plant tops and collect the bolls and chaff rather than spread them.
This keeps the seed pod holders out of the straw, because the spiny tissues cause problems during processing when they become tangled with the fibre.
Then, if possible, the crop needs to be laid flat on the ground to ret. On the soil, it comes into contact with organisms that break down the waxy bonds that hold the fibres together, making further processing possible.
Biolin has also been developing techniques for fibre testing using near infrared technology.
“It takes a lot of material and a lot of samples to develop a (database) of information that can be used to evaluate fibre content reliably under all conditions,” said Ulrich.
Standards for the fibre aspects of the crop are being developed by Ulrich and others. Last year the American Society for Testing and Materials announced it had produced four sets of standards for flax fibres and expects its system will be the future of evaluating crop quality.
Ulrich said that alone will allow producers to be paid with an objective method of quality measurement and give buyers and processors the ability to count on the quality of material they purchase.
