News

U of G new research chair predicts crops will become world's economic foundation

Planting the seeds for future growth

February 28, 2008
BY ROB O'FLANAGAN
GUELPH MERCURY

Amar Mohanty has a radical vision of the future global economy. Plants are an integral part of it.

During a rushed and dense presentation to a University of Guelph audience last night, Mohanty, the U of G's new research chair in biomaterials and transportation, and a professor in the department of plant agriculture, outlined a not-too-distant future scenario in which plants become the foundation of the economy.

Various crops will not only produce renewable biofuels to run our vehicles, they will be used to produce an array of "biomaterials" that can be turned to everything from car parts and furniture, to building materials and new kinds of rubber.

Mohanty, a world expert in the production of biomaterials, said the technology currently exists to turn plant materials into resins, polymers and tough fibres for the production of petroleum-free plastics. In fact, he said, that knowledge has been around for about a hundred years. Unlike the plastics we are currently dependent on, these plant-based plastics are biodegradable, and the crops that produce them are completely renewable.

Not only is it desirable to shift away from the petroleum-based economy, it is inevitable, Mohanty said. But the process of economic transformation will only be hastened when the production of biomaterials is embraced by industry -- when industry actually takes the knowledge and turned it into usable products.

"At the end of the day we need to make products," Mohanty said, delineating the ultimate purpose of the research and innovation he will lead at the university. "Without bioproducts the bioeconomy will not take off."

Numerous industries, including those in the automotive sector, are showing a willingness to back the research needed to make such products viable.

There is currently a government-backed push to bring biofuels into higher production, Mohanty said.

"But bio-alcohol is not the silver bullet that will solve all of our environmental problems," he said, explaining that carbon emissions from vehicles are just part of the environmental crisis.

The various plastic products we purchase and use take massive amounts of energy and petroleum to produce, and they are filling up our landfill sites. Their toxic properties are killing about 100,000 mammals and over a million seabirds each year, he added.

The beauty of biomaterials, Mohanty said, is that they are completely biodegradable, and they can be produced from all parts of various plants -- corn, sugar cane, switchgrass, wood chips and soybean. A time is coming when the burning of organic material like wheat straw will be a thing of past, and when the use of food crops to make biofuel will be unnecessary.

The science of plant genetics will play a key role in this "new agriculture" and "bioeconomy," Mohanty said. It will contribute to improved yields, and to finding ways to grow healthy crops in harsh environments. Value-added markets for agricultural crops will grow, agricultural jobs will be created, rural communities will flourish, and the environment will be saved for future generations, he said.