Alberta's cattle sector is on the verge of beefing up firefighting operations across the province.

Research now under way at the University of Alberta is looking into the utilization of "byproduct streams" from cattle processing to create biodegradable protein-based foaming agents.

If successful, an environmentally friendly firefighting foam would be available to fight Class B (flammable liquids) fires.

"The project is unique because it takes bovine proteins, which are otherwise discarded into the wastestream, and aims to transform them into value-added chemicals," says David Bressler, an assistant professor in agricultural, food and nutritional sciences at the university's faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Home Economics.

Jack Dagley, Business Edge
University of Alberta assistant professor David Bressler, right, holds a container of blood meal, which he, professor Kevin Kropp, left, AVAC Ltd. investment manager Wendy Lam and Guardian Chemicals hope to convert into a firefighting foam.

There could also be positive implications for the oil and gas sector, as these newly created proteins could have the potential to improve deep well-injection enhanced oil-recovery technologies.

Better yet, says Bressler, the proteins are to be created from cattle byproducts such as blood meal and bone meal, otherwise known as specified risk materials (SRMs), whose market has basically dried up since the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) crisis hit Alberta.

These SRMs, traditionally sold along with other cattle byproducts prior to the BSE calamity, must now be removed from the byproduct stream, doing away with a market worth approximately $37 million.

"What we've been doing is we've been working on bone meal and blood meal - they're in a very crude form requiring purification procedures to get the protein separated," says Bressler, who also holds a cross-appointment with the bioindustrial technical division of Alberta Agriculture Farm and Rural Development (AAFRD).

"We've got the protein purified, the next step was getting it into a water solution so it would be able to dissolve, and that's now done. We're also in the process of building a foaming apparatus to test its foamability and foam stability.

"We're at the point right now where we're starting to look at the chemical modifications of the protein and their effect on foaming," adds Bressler.

Bressler is working in conjunction with Fort Saskatchewan-based Guardian Chemicals Inc., which has signed on as an industry partner.

The project has also received funding from AVAC Ltd., an Alberta not-for-profit private company created in 1997 to help the province attain agrivalue sales worth $20 billion annually by 2010.

"The potential for this research is truly remarkable," says Wendy Lam, AVAC's investment manager.

"It takes a renewable resource that is currently disposed of at a cost to Alberta producers and turns it into a dual-use value-added product," adds Lam. "The foaming agent we hope to see developed is not only useful in firefighting and enhanced-oil recovery operations, but has the added benefit of being natural and biodegradable.

"This is a true win-win-win for Alberta's agriculture community, Alberta industry and Alberta's environment."

AVAC is investing in the project through its Ag Research Fund 3, which has a mandate to support ag research toward commercialization.

"Guided by industry partner Guardian Chemicals, this research, should it prove successful, can be fast-tracked for commercialization," Lam adds.

Guardian Chemicals CEO Stewart Roth says the project is still in its early stages, though it is showing promise.

"The final product may be simple or it may be complex to manufacture," he says. "We may have to look at getting a third party involved (if it should prove to be a complex manufacturing process) or if it's a simpler process, we may be able to do it ourselves."

The company handles about 300 different products in its product line used in industrial process applications. It also has a manufacturing component and manages its own distribution.

"From a historical perspective, we started looking at products - products from renewable resources and materials from renewable resources - and we also looked at building, for our industrial division, a firefighting foam product," notes Roth.

Company product development chemist Jiping Fang researched the use of proteins and industrial surfactants (surface active agents) in firefighting foams, and his work led to commercial success.

Larry Kropp, a product development scientist who later joined the Guardian team, and Fang have moved forward to refocus on the use of modified proteins.

"We're in a process, working with Dave (Bressler) to build a piece of equipment for the testing process to measure how well a particular protein works as a foaming agent," says Kropp.

"This equipment will enable us to quantify how modifications of the protein will affect its suitability for use in a firefighting foam."

Adds Roth: "From my perspective I think that the opportunity to look at protein foams as a raw material has benefits not only for us but for the agricultural industry.

"It's conceivable that there can be a homegrown solution for a problem both from the agricultural perspective and the industrial chemical perspective."

(Laura Severs can be reached at laura@businessedge.ca)