News
ArboraNano – the Canadian Forest NanoProducts
Network selected as a new Business-led Network funded by the Government
of Canada.
Montréal, Québec, February
23, 2009 --- FPInnovations is pleased to announce that
ArboraNano – the Canadian Forest
NanoProducts Network has been selected as one of four
new Business-led Networks funded by the Government of Canada. ArboraNano
is receiving $8.9 million over four years. Announced in Budget 2007,
the goal of the Business-led Networks of Centres of Excellence program
is to fund large-scale, collaborative networks led by the private sector
and focused on specific business research needs.
ArboraNano, a research and development network bringing together nanotechnology
and forest sector expertise, will strive to create a new Canadian bio-economy
based on innovative, highly-engineered, carbon-neutral products containing
nanomaterials. Wood and wood fibre from Canada’s vast forests
can converted into high-value nanomaterials and intermediates, and these
can be used to produce a variety of unique advanced products.
These nanomaterials and the products developed from them will have
applications in many industrial sectors, including aerospace, automotive,
medical devices, chemicals, composites, cosmetics, pharmaceutical, coatings
and forest products,. The ArboraNano network will involve the collaboration
of Canadian scientists and engineers from these industries, as well
as from university and government laboratories. It will provide the
means to combine fundamental and applied research with private sector
innovation in order to take advantage of Canada’s vast sustainable
natural forest resource.
Mr. Dave McDonald, Vice-President, Pulp and Paper, FPInnovations said
that “many of the new products will be based on a plant-derived
nanomaterial - NanoCrystalline Cellulose (NCC), while others will use
other nanomaterials in the development of new forest products. NCC is
a nanomaterial that has yet to establish a presence in the marketplace
but that holds great promise. Research by FPInnovations scientists has
shown that NCC has many remarkable properties, some of which are unique
and others that are comparable to those of other well-known nanomaterials.”
NCC can be economically extracted from trees. The properties of NCC
and the many forms in which it can be made means that it has the potential
to be used in many different ways, namely advanced building products,
recyclable structural and interior components for the transportation
industry, innovative coatings and fillers for papermaking, novel bioplastics,
fibre-reinforced composites, switchable optical films, bio-composites
for bone repair, additives for paints/pigments/inks and for cosmetic
products, iridescent or magnetic films, electrically-conductive membranes,
printed paper electronic devices, encapsulated quantum semiconductor
crystal dots, and advanced or “intelligent” packaging materials.
FPInnovations researchers have also shown the advantage of using nanomaterials
other than NCC to significantly enhance the performance of forest products
such as building materials, paper, board, packaging.
By using nanomaterials in various ways, increased strength and toughness,
and improved resistance to wear, moisture and UV damage can be achieved.
By taking advantage of unique properties such as colour, anti-microbial
activity and self-cleaning properties, a multitude of novel forest nanoproducts
can be created.
“Nanotechnology bridges a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines
and cuts across many industrial sectors. The growing interest in nanotechnology
is a consequence of the promise this science holds to create new materials
for a wide variety of manufactured goods,” stated Pierre Lapointe,
President and CEO, FPInnovations. “Nanotechnology is expected
to represent a dominant force in economic growth over the next few decades
and has been identified as a strategic platform for development. ArboraNano
will build on this strategic platform and apply Canada’s forest
resource to create new unique opportunities for Canadian manufacturing
industries”, concluded Mr. Lapointe.
About FPInnovations
FPInnovations is a not-for-profit world leader which specializes in
the creation of scientific solutions in support of the Canadian forest
sector’s global competitiveness, and responds to the priority
needs of its industrial and government members. It is ideally positioned
to perform research, to innovate, and to deliver state-of-the-art solutions
for every area of the sector’s value chain, from forestry operations
to consumer and industrial products. Created from the merger of the
three main Canadian forest sector research institutes: FERIC, Forintek
Canada Corp., and Paprican, FPInnovations also provides technical direction
to the Natural Resources Canada’s Canadian Wood Fibre Centre.
FPInnovations’ staff numbers more than 600. Its research laboratories
are located in Québec City, Montréal, and Vancouver, with
technology transfer offices across Canada.
About NanoCrystalline Cellulose (NCC)
and the ArboraNano Network
Please consult the Publications page of FPInnovations’ website
at www.fpinnovations.ca/publications_e.htm
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