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 A Journal of Discovery, Creativity, and Innovation at the University of Saskatchewan |
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A Journal of Discovery, Creativity, and Innovation at the University of Saskatchewan |
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By Cameron Zimmer
Serious research into hemp’s industrial possibilities has often been
lost in the haze surrounding its infamous cousin, the marijuana
plant. Scientists at the University of Saskatchewan are doing their
part to ensure that hemp’s potential doesn’t go up in smoke.
Satya Panigrahi, the university’s
Saskatchewan Agricultural and Food
Research Chair in Bioprocess Engineering, is
particularly high on hemp’s future as a viable
industrial crop that can be used to create
“green” products.
The engineer sees hemp as a great potential
crop for the Canadian Prairies because it
requires minimal input, such as fertilizers or
herbicides, and yet can grow up to 4.5 m tall before it’s
harvested. And unlike many other crops harvested only
for their seeds, farmers can potentially harvest and sell
hemp seeds for oil, and large hemp stalks for their fibre.
“I’d really like to see farmers understand that hemp has
huge potential to bring them revenue,” says Panigrahi.
To make his point, the engineer has spent the last
four years investigating how hemp fibre can be mixed
with other materials and molded into environmentally
friendly products. He’s already used hemp and recycled
materials to create a plastic replacement called “hempstic,”
a fiberglass alternative to make auto-body parts, and
shingles that combine hemp, flax and recycled rubber.
Panigrahi has generated the most buzz with what he
calls Eco-Bricks, bio-composite building blocks made
with 75 per cent hemp stalk fibre combined with flax and
recycled plastic from milk jugs, juice cartons, and other
containers collected at the Saskatchewan Association of
Rehabilitation Centres (SARCAN) recycling outlets.
Using what is nicknamed the “shake-and-bake” process,
the engineer and his team heat a blend of chopped hemp
and flax with plastic until it melts. The bio-composite
liquid is then poured into moulds that range from the size
of a small brick to the dimensions of a large Cindercrete
block.
The result is a stackable fire-resistant and mold-resistant
construction material. The versatile bricks can be nailed
and screwed, just like wood boards. Stucco can be applied
to the bricks to form attractive exterior walls. And they
have an insulation value of up to R-50, much higher than
the R-10 to R23 insulation used in most homes.
To top it off, the bricks are expected to sell for 30 to 50
per cent less than comparable concrete blocks.
To ensure the promising brick doesn’t become an
anecdote in the annals of pot culture, Panigrahi
is pushing to bring the product to market. He
has already finalized a deal for a private
manufacturer to begin producing the
bricks and other biocomposite
products in 2009.
Once production is in
motion, the bricks will be used to build model houses in the Craik Ecovillage,
a sustainable-development community located
between Regina and Saskatoon.
Though Panigrahi believes the bricks could benefit
the environment by reducing the need to cut down
trees to build residential homes, he still sees obstacles
preventing hemp products from making their way
into mainstream markets.
“One of the problems is that we don’t have much of
a hemp-processing industry in Canada, particularly in
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, which means
that we have to depend on someone else to process
hemp” says Panigrahi.
Ralph Ashmead, an economist with leading agribusiness
firm Serecon Consulting, says technology
gaps have prevented hemp processing from getting off
the ground in the past, but the technology now exists
to begin the establishment of a biorefinery for hemp
products.
“This needs to be supported by government, led by
industry, and endorse the research community,” says
Ashmead.
The consultant believes that before Panigrahi’s goal
of boosting hemp farming can be achieved, the hemp
industry needs to work on developing a market for its
products.
“It is all about effective market demand. If the
market is there, there will be production by farmers,”
says Ashmead.
Ron Kehrig, former Vice-President of Biofuels and
Bioproducts at Ag-West Bio, a membership-based
development organization for Saskatchewan’s bioeconomy,
says researchers and the hemp industry must
work together to create marketable products that meet
safety standards and consumers’ expectations.
“The challenge is to meet today’s consumers’
standards for price and quality as well as leaving a
green footprint,” says Kehrig. “If hemp is going to
become a big industry, it has to become mainstream.
We’re not going to advance sustainability if we only stay
on the fringes of the market.”
High-Free Hemp
Making hemp more commercially palatable may start
with making it more appealing for farmers to grow as
an industrial crop.
Hemp was considered a banned narcotic in Canada
until Health Canada launched a program in 1998
that allowed hemp crops to be grown for commercial
products. After the new program came into effect,
farmers wanting to grow industrial hemp had to be
licensed through a stringent process that involved
undergoing criminal-record checks and providing
global positioning system (GPS) coordinates for their
crops.
The Health Canada regulations were employed
because, beyond looking nearly identical to the
illegal marijuana plant, hemp also contains small
concentrations of Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the
chemical responsible for marijuana’s mind-altering
effects. As it stands, industrial hemp plants must have
less than 0.3 per cent THC to be considered legal, nonnarcotic
plants.
Jonathan Page, an adjunct U of S biology professor
and National Research Council Plant Biotechnology
Institute research scientist, believes THC’s presence
in hemp has hurt its reputation and potential as an
industrial crop.
“In many ways one of the big issues or stumbling
blocks around hemp is still the presence of low
amounts of THC,” says Page.
The scientist and his research team are working
on a way to remove THC from hemp altogether. If
successful, strict regulations for hemp producers could
become less of a necessity, providing more incentive for
farmers to grow industrial hemp crops.
Using a grant from the Natural Sciences and
Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC), Page and his
team are building a resource full of genetic information
about the formation of cannabinoids, a group of
chemical compounds that include the THC compound
found in both marijuana and hemp plants.
By understanding the biochemistry behind
cannabinoids, Page says he may someday be able to
produce a hemp variety that has no cannabinoids and
zero THC content.
“Hopefully this basic research can be applied in a
way that benefits the farmer. Reducing or completely
removing cannabinoids in general from hemp may
lead to a crop that is more industrially acceptable than
the varieties we have today.”
