Agricultural biomass is not being used to its full potential for high-value products because of the limited knowledge and understanding of the standards that currently exist for the Canadian bioproducts industry. Companies must be able to assure their customers that the products manufactured with biomass can replace traditional materials; and to do that, quality assurance standards, measurement protocols and/or grading systems need to be in place.
The Composites Innovation Centre (CIC) received $982,075 for a two-year project through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Agri-Marketing program, Assurance Systems stream, on behalf of the Biomass Quality Network Canada (BQNC) to begin work begin developing quality standards for industrial bioproducts. This project is working with all levels of the supply chain, from farmers to manufacturers, to become a Canadian benchmark for quality standards to support the advancement of the bioproducts industry in four main sectors: Biochemicals, Bioenergy, Biofuels and Biomaterials.
Within the bioproducts industry, the BQNC is identifying and prioritizing gaps in quality standards, creating a database to collect and link to existing standards information, and developing standards where gaps exist. Through these activities, the BQNC is becoming a central hub of information and support for the bioproducts industry.
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