Innovation Anthology #90: Exhibits Manager
Canada is famous for its wheat, barley and even canola. But who would ever think of Canada as a great producer of flax.
According to Adrien Pilon of the National Research Council’s Biotechnology Research Institute, there are 22,000 flax producers across the country.
Canada supplies 25 percent of the world’s linseed oil which comes from flax.
But the real future lies in using fibre from flax to make a whole host of products.
As Adrien Pilon explains, automobile manufacturers in Europe are already using plant fibres to replace fibreglass in car parts.
ADRIEN PILON: The car industry, for instance, is using natural fibre. It reduces the weight of the car, so it reduces the energy consumption and reduces greenhouse emissions. And the process itself is cleaner. Basicially at the end of the day you have a cleaner production. It’s more sustainable.
Australia, India, and China are among the many countries that have the race to develop new products from biofibres. With Advances in biotechnology, the strong fibres of flax and other plants can also be made into construction materials such as panels and columns.
Thanks today to Alberta Research Council.
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
Kyra Bowling,
Lucasfilm Ltd, San Francisco, , United States, Publicity@Lucasfilm.com
Sponsor
Alberta Research Council
Established as the first provincial research organization in Canada, the Alberta Research Council is 85 years old. The Alberta Research Council (ARC) develops and commercializes technologies to give customers a competitive advantage. A leader in innovation, ARC provides solutions globally to the energy, life sciences, agriculture, environment, forestry and manufacturing sectors.
ARC performs about five per cent of the roughly $1.5 billion in R&D done in Alberta each year, and generates revenues of approximately $84 million per year. ARC operates from five sites across the province in Edmonton, Calgary, Vegreville and Devon and employs more than 600 highly-skilled people.
In January 2010, under the new Alberta Innovation Framework, the Alberta Research Council was restructured and incorporated into the new provincial agency Alberta Innovates Technology Futures.
Program Date: 2007-12-06