Grant: Idea to Innovation

Dr. Feng Jiang's laboratory at the University of British Columbia (UBC) has developed a sustainable plant-based alternative to animal-based and synthetic petroleum-based insulative materials using a scalable process. The insulation is an aerogel made entirely from hemp fibres and is hydrophobic, has ultralow thermal conductivity, and high elasticity that can recover from compression. These properties make the hemp aerogel ideal for many applications such as winter jackets, sleeping pads, and insulated packaging. The hemp-based aerogel has been developed in response to industry feedback on previously developed cellulose nanofibril aerogels to ensure high performance insulation properties, while utilizing an industrially scalable production process to demonstrate a feasible pathway to commercialization. The technology has achieved TRL 6 with product prototyping, commercial scale production trials, industry-led testing, and business development activities. This I2I Phase I grant application aims to tackle the remaining technical obstacles identified by key industry partners to demonstrate the material's viability in various commercial applications in order to de-risk the technology and begin inviting investment for the planned spinoff company. The specific objectives of this Phase I application include: - Develop and optimize full production process for industrial scale manufacturing of the material (material uniformity and fibre preprocessing equipment selection); - Improve material shape recovery by optimizing mix of fibre sizes; - Optimize mix-in plant wax-emulsion hydrophobic treatment to bypass the current chemical vapour deposition method; - Prepare multiple prototypes for industry testing including a jacket, sleeping pad, and insulated envelope mailer to demonstrate commercial readiness and gain feedback from partners. This 12-month project will allow us to demonstrate the unique properties of the developed plant-based technology, the feasibility of its production and assess its performance against incumbent insulation technologies with various Canadian companies representing different product markets.