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A rendering of the new pulp mill slated to start production in 2028. Credit: Red Leaf Pulp<\/p>\nEvery year in Canada, 30 million tonnes of wheat straw left over from harvesting gets left on farmers\u2019 fields. What if you could turn some of that waste into paper products and alleviate the pressure on forests in the process?<\/p>\n
The founders of Red Leaf Pulp say they\u2019ve figured out how to make high-quality pulp from agricultural by-products rather than wood from trees, and they\u2019re ready to start producing at scale. The company\u2019s first-of-a-kind pulp mill, slated to begin construction in Regina, Saskatchewan, in the first quarter of 2026, will manufacture what it calls \u201cclimate-positive, non-wood pulp\u201d using a process that consumes 95% less water and 70% less energy than traditional mills \u2013 all while running on electricity generated by burning biomass from its own waste stream.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think there\u2019s nothing in Canada that\u2019s as sustainable as this project, in terms of what we bring in upstream and downstream benefits,\u201d says William Walls, vice president of strategy and development, in a phone interview. He claims that the carbon footprint of Red Leaf\u2019s wheat straw pulp is a third that of regular wood pulp.<\/p>\n
Red Leaf has earned the confidence of investors, raising $42 million in five years, most of it from the container company Dart, as well as about $8 million in government funding and a $1-million angel investment. Walls calls it \u201cprobably one of the best-funded cleantechs in Canada.\u201d The company used the funding to build a demonstration plant in Alberta, where it has been testing its process and selling its products for different applications. Once operational in 2028, the facility is expected to convert 400,000 tonnes of straw into 200,000 tonnes of market pulp annually.<\/p>\n
A rendering of the new pulp mill slated to start production in 2028. Credit: Red Leaf Pulp<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a lot for investors to like. For example, Red Leaf doesn\u2019t need to develop any equipment to run its patented process for \u201cmaking the straw act like a wood chip,\u201d Walls says. They use conventional equipment for wood pulp mills made by Valmet, one of the biggest pulp and paper equipment manufacturers on the planet.<\/p>\n
Red Leaf sources directly from farmers and accepts all varieties of leftover wheat straw, as well as oats, barley and flax, much of which would often otherwise be burned or left to lie on the field. This creates a new revenue stream for farmers and positions them in a circular economy, while ensuring a reliable supply of pulp for Red Leaf\u2019s new mill.<\/p>\n
An opening in the pulp market<\/p>\n
The introduction of wheat straw pulp comes amid an ongoing decline in the supply of \u201ceconomically viable timber,\u201d which has been devastating<\/a> for Canada\u2019s forestry industry and prompted one B.C. lumber mill to close<\/a> in November. The main culprits are wildfires, which consumed 17 million hectares in 2022, and invasive insect infestations, which killed 13 million hectares worth of trees the same year. Those disruptions, plus a reduction in the allowable cuts, caused the whole forestry sector to contract by 22%<\/a> in 2023 and have shrunk the available wood fibre for products like pulp and pellets by more than 40%<\/a> in British Columbia since 2018.To make matters worse, the U.S. raised its duties<\/a> on softwood lumber to 20.6% last July.<\/p>\n The constrained fibre supply in Canada\u2019s forestry sector creates an opening for Red Leaf, but the company sees its role as complementary rather than competitive, spokesperson Elle Kreitz says in an email: \u201cRed Leaf introduces new, non-wood fibre into an already integrated system, helping to relieve supply demand pressures without competing for forest resources.\u201d<\/p>\n The company believes its wheat pulp should telegraph its authentic sustainability, so they\u2019re not going to dye it bright white, which has long been an industry norm. Red Leaf advertises its pulp as possessing a \u201cnatural golden tone\u201d \u2013 one that doesn\u2019t require a harmful bleaching process to achieve.<\/p>\n A starring role for lignin<\/p>\n Red Leaf also plans to sell the lignin \u2013 a component of plant cell walls that gives them their structure \u2013 separately as a stand-alone product. Straw has less lignin, so it\u2019s easier to separate out, Walls says. Lignin comes out of the pulp process as a sludgy brown by-product that\u2019s already a popular binder in animal feed and is considered eco-friendly because it diverts waste that would otherwise contaminate waterways.<\/p>\n