Innovation Anthology #269:

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New homes in China’s earthquake zone will now be made from wheat straw instead of bricks and cement.

A Dutch company has licenced technology developed by the Alberta Research Council to make wheat straw panel board, or OSSB.

According to architect Boewe Besseling of Panel Board Holdings, the wheat straw panels are superior and they are framed with light gauge steel.

BOUWE BESSELING: First of all the buildings are all made out of concrete and bricks. And the quality of these bricks and concrete is a little bit less than what we are used to in Europe and also in Canada. So if there is an eqrthquake, there is a big possibility that it just cracks because it is not flexible, and it comes down, and unfortunately that has happened a lot last year during the earthquake. And this lightguage steel is more flexible. So it can withstand an eqrthquake much better than concrete and bricks. And together with our OSSB, which we can use like a bracing element, it stands better in earthquakes than what they have right now.

Environmentally speaking, the wheat straw panel boards make use of straw that in China would otherwise be burned, and they save agricultural land from being dug up for clay.

Thanks today to the Alberta Research Council.

I’M CHERYL CROUCHER

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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: 2009-11-19