PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico – A Canadian factory that converts canola into plastic and other industrial products is one step closer to reality.
Researchers at the University of Alberta have secured $1 million in funding to build a small-scale testing facility where canola will be used to make automobile panels, bumpers and dashboards.
“By the end of summer we will have a pilot plant,” said Suresh Narine, director of the Alberta Bioplastics Network, a consortium of institutions that includes the university and a number of provincial and federal government agencies.
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It will be the first plant of its kind in Canada. Similar work is already being done on a commercial scale with soybeans in the United States.
The pilot project will be the proving ground for a team of researchers from the U of A who have developed a canola-based plastic suitable for making moulded car parts, medical tubing, food packages and rust-coating products.
“We’re just doing this to prove that if we make a bumper it doesn’t fall apart,” Narine said.
If the pilot project is successful it could pave the way for a multimillion dollar full-scale plant.
“We believe that in three years we will have a commercialized entity in the Alberta area,” he said.
