Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives
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ARDI 2008-09 Activity Report
Biocomposites on Buses
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In the very near future, you may plunk down onto a city bus in some busy metropolis and discover that you just can’t escape the keystone province, no matter how far you travel. You may be sitting on Manitoba-grown hemp.
A research team at the University of Manitoba is testing a prototype bus part made from natural hemp fibre and a canola-oil based resin. These renewable source materials may be less costly for manufacturers than nonrenewable petroleum-based products. (view research project synopsis below).
“We are working closely with several commercial partners,” says Dr. Raghavan Jayaraman, lead researcher on the project, “because we need to meet the needs of the industry in order to bring the product to market.” Fortunately, Winnipeg is home to New Flyer, the leading manufacturer of heavy-duty transit buses in the U.S. and Canada, and Carlson Engineered Composites, a major bus parts supplier. Both companies are supporting the research team’s work.
To make the biocomposite bus part, researchers place a hemp fibre mat into a mold. Next, they infuse the mat with a canola-oil based resin. The resin fills the pores within the mat, solidifying in the shape of the mold. Although making the part is not technically difficult, ensuring that the new product meets all the end-use specifications is more challenging. Natural fibre mats are thicker than glass fibre mats, for example. The research team is focused on finding a way to make the mats thinner, but with better fibre and composite properties.
The team is now testing its prototype bus part for strength, moisture resistance, flame resistance and other technical requirements. “Once we gain the confidence of the end user, we will think beyond this project,” says Dr. Jayaraman. “We can envision market pull for these new bio-based materials coming from a broad range of industries including manufacturers of building products such as bathtubs, recreational vehicle manufacturers, and even the aerospace industry.”
Market pull could mean new growth for Manitoba’s value-added sector. While hemp is grown in Manitoba, the food side has seen much faster growth than the industrial fibre side. As a result, hemp fibre mats are not commercially available in Manitoba. For processors, opportunities lie with processing hemp straw into fibre (a process known as decortication) and with processing the fibre into a compressed, flat mat.
“Ideally, we would like to see Manitoba companies build capacity to process the fibre and manufacture the non-woven mat,” says Dr. Jayaraman. “Then we’d have a complete supply chain here in Manitoba.”
The research question: Can we make bus parts using hemp fibre and a canola-oil based resin?
The research team: Dr. Raghavan Jayaraman, Dr. Devi Adhikari (Post-Doctoral Fellow), Mahi Fahimian (PhD student), Frank J Wheeler (undergraduate student), Prof. Richard Wool (University of Delaware).
Why the research matters: The transportation industry can replace petroleum-based products with biocomposite products made from natural fibres.
How this research will help farmers: Farmers will have new value-added markets for Manitoba-grown crops.
ARDI grant: $84,000.
Partners: New Flyer, Carlson Engineered Composites, Stemergy Renewable Fibre Technologies.
Research timetable: November 2008 to July 2010.
Learn more: A. Campanella, M. Fahimian, R.P. Wool, and J. Raghavan, (2009), “Sythesis and Rheology of Chemically Modified Canola Oil,” Journal of Bio-based Materials and Bioenergy, v.3, pp. 1-9.
M. Fahimian, J. Raghavan, Geof Kime, D. Adhikari, Brent Klimack, R.P. Wool, J. Arnolt Milne, and Paul Zanetel, (2009), “Influence of mat parameters on manufacturability and properties of needle-punched hemp fiber bio composites,” To be presented during and published in the proceedings of the 1st Joint Canadian and American Technical Conference, Sep. 15-17, Newark, DE, USA.