Biomaterial Analysis for Flax Biofiber: from Harvest to Product

加拿大是世界亚麻籽生产的领导者，估计本作物年将收获9.1亿吨亚麻籽。不幸的是，几乎所有的秸秆从作物目前被烧毁的领域。目前被焚烧的加工亚麻纤维的估计市场价值为每年2 000万至3 000万美元。在提高将秸秆加工成亚麻纤维的工业能力方面已经取得了进展，但同一田地的作物变化使得从油籽亚麻秸秆加工纺织级纤维在经济上不可行。这项研究计划将使用近红外和中红外光谱分析从收获到最终产品的亚麻茎和秸秆。在收获时进行评估的能力将使生产者能够将作物出售给最高价值的市场;有效地对田间产生的变异进行分类，以使生产者（农民）和消费者（即，纺织、复合材料、造纸和燃料工业）。

Canada is a world leader in flax seed production with an estimated 910 million tonnes to be harvested in this crop year. Unfortunately almost all of the straw from the crop is currently burned in the field. The estimated market value for processed flax fibre that is currently burned is $20-30 million dollars/year. Progress has been made to raise industry capacity to process straw into linen fiber, but crop variation across the same field has made it economically unfeasible to process textile grade fiber from oilseed flax straw. This program of research will use near and mid infrared (mid-IR) spectroscopy to analyze oilseed flax stems and straw from harvest to the final product. The ability to conduct assessments at time of harvest will enable producers to sell the crop to the highest value market; effectively sorting the variation produced in the field to the benefit of both producer (farmer) and consumers (i.e., textile, composites, paper and fuel industries).