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Barley plant secures funding

There’s more to barley than beer, soup and cereal — and a research facility proposed for Alberta could soon prove this.

There’s more to barley than beer, soup and cereal — and a research facility proposed for Alberta could soon prove this.

Government and agricultural officials gathered in Lacombe on Wednesday to announce funding for a multimillion-dollar pilot plant that would demonstrate how products derived from barley can be used to encapsulate drugs, package foods and even clean up chemical spills.

Details about the facility — including its location — have yet to be finalized, but interest from prospective industry partners is high, said Alan Hall, who is with Alberta Crop Industry Development Fund Ltd.

Alberta Crop Industry Development Fund, a not-for-profit company directed by a number of crop industry organizations, is heading up the pilot plant project.

The federal government confirmed on Wednesday that it is providing $4.4 million through Western Diversification Canada, and additional funding is coming from the Alberta Barley Commission and Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions.

Hall said there’s enough money in place to develop the facility, which is expected to cost between $5.5 million and $6 million.

At the core of the project is more than four years of research by Lingyun Chen, an assistant professor in the department of agricultural food and nutritional science at the University of Alberta. She’s shown how barley protein can be used to create an encapsulation material for things like vitamins.

“If you have micro-encapsulation,” said Chen, “you can protect them during food processing, storage and in the stomach, and deliver them to the intestine, where they can be absorbed to have health benefits.”

Anther potential application is the encapsulation of food ingredients so that they’re released at a specific stage of food preparation, processing or digestion, said Hall.

“A couple of the companies we’re talking with are into technologies like that with their end products,” he said.

The technology might also prove useful in the pharmaceutical industry, said Hall, or in the packaging of foods to extend their shelf life.

Not only would the material be biodegradable, it shouldn’t pose any of the health concerns that synthetic materials can, said Chen.

Other uses might involve the encapsulation of fertilizer for delayed release in the soil, and placing a highly absorbent gel made from barley protein onto chemical spills.

Chen said the problem has been that material produced in a lab is insufficient for potential industrial users to assess. A pilot plant would address this limitation.

“This pilot plant will be essential to moving those products from the bench in Dr. Chen’s laboratory, through to the manufacturing sector and new products in the marketplace,” said Cornelia Kreplin, executive director of Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions.

Ultimately, proteins from other crops like canola or wheat might also be processed at the plant, said Hall.

“We view barley as a starting point.”

Hall said discussions are taking place with companies from North America, Europe and Asia. Their needs will probably dictate the specifications of the plant.

“We won’t have facilities nailed down until, I’m guessing, probably May, June — something like that.”

The custom-built equipment for the plant likely wouldn’t be obtained and assembled until late this year or early in 2013, added Hall.

Hall anticipates that the plant will likely go up along the Hwy 2 corridor, for logistical reasons. The exact location will depend on where the plant’s feedstock, barley flour, can be obtained.

“There are three or four plants around that have that capability,” he said, noting that one is Permolex Ltd.’s ethanol plant in Red Deer.

“We’ve had some discussions with Permolex, and others like that.”

An advantage that Permolex would have is that it could use the starch produced by the pilot plant’s operations for ethanol production, said Hall.

Matt Sawyer, chair of Alberta Barley Commission and a barley grower, is enthused about the potential of the project for his industry.

“By creating a facility that will allow for pilot-scale production, testing and product demonstrations, we have the potential to create new niche markets for crops and increase profitability at the farm gate.”