Grant: Alliance Grants

Canada continues to be the global leader in oat production and has grown to an $8 billion industry. As per the Prairie Oat Grower Association, Saskatchewan typically produces more than 50% of Canadian Oats making Saskatchewan largest oat producing region in the world. Thus, oats are a major cereal crop in Saskatchewan. In general, raw oat may contain on an average 25% hulls and could vary between 20 - 36%. The hulls represent a significant volume of by-product from oat milling operations. Currently, the oat hulls are of low value and incur additional costs to the processors for their safe disposal. We collaborated with Richardson Milling to develop biorefining method for extracting hemicellulose, lignin, and cellulose pulp from the oat hulls. The developed methods have been optimized for higher yield of individual components in oat hulls and their structure has been characterized. The proposed research focuses on developing application of fractionated by-products; cellulose pulp in the fabrication of single-use packaging material and as a rheology modifier in oil-drilling fluid, lignin as a binder for canola meal pellets and for the development of slow-release fertilizer, and hemicellulose as a functional ingredient for food product. All of the proposed applications are highly beneficial to shift from petroleum-based to bio-based materials. The valorization of oat hulls to bioproducts such as food ingredients and additives for sustainable agriculture and improvement of quality of existing products such as canola meal, packaging materials, and drilling fluids can bring new benefits to the province and Canada. The utilization of oat hulls, which is otherwise landfilled, lowers the emissions and overall carbon footprint of the process. In addition, the effective management and conversion of oat hulls to high value bioproducts will generate new jobs and economic benefits to Canada. The transformative nature of the project can be applied to manage other kinds of agricultural waste biomass, therefore advancing the knowledge to support development of bioeconomy in Canada.