Canada Investing in the Use of Wood Products for Automotive Applications

October 15, 2020                                             Toronto, Ontario                                  Natural Resources Canada

The Government of Canada is building a clean energy future and supporting the natural resource sectors. Forestry is an important source of jobs for Canadians, and the industry continues to find innovative ways to create new markets for Canadian wood.

The Honourable Marco Mendicino, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, on behalf of the Honourable Seamus O’Regan, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, today announced $1.2 million to GreenNano Technologies Inc., a company based in Toronto, to scale up production of a new lightweight wood-fibre–based composite material to create automotive parts using an innovative process.

The project will combine wood pulp with polymers to create a special strong and lightweight thermoplastic with more uniform and improved properties compared to other products. The new product, if successfully applied in the automotive sector, could have a number of consumer and commercial applications, including aerospace parts, pharmaceuticals, solar panels and cosmetics.

GreenNano is also collaborating with Ford Canada’s Power Engineering Research and Development Centre, located in Windsor, Ontario, to test the new material in the production of lightweight car parts.

Funding for this project is provided through the Investments in Forest Industry Transformation program, which encourages the Canadian forest sector to adopt and implement unique technologies and processes to diversify into new product streams and into emerging markets. By investing in innovative forest sector technologies, the forest sector can provide greener solutions that will help tackle climate change and transition to a low-carbon economy.

Canada's forest sector is a major employer of Canadians, including Indigenous people and people in rural and remote communities. A competitive and resilient forest sector is essential to communities and workers across the country.