Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, honourable members.
My name is Dan Madlung. I'm a forester; I graduated from UBC in 1979. I worked my way through the forest industry. My last job with a company was with CanFor. I was the vice-president of operations there. I've worked in several countries. When I retired in 2006, my wife and I decided to become entrepreneurs, and we've since built several companies related to the forest industry. The last one we're currently commercializing is a company called BioComposites Group, and that's mainly what I want to talk about today.
BioComposites Group is unique in North America. No other plant is doing what we're doing in North America. We produce a non-woven needle-punched mat. We take natural and synthetic fibres and we use a little needle, barbed at the end, and weave together natural fibres. This process uses no water, no chemicals, no heat; it's just a mechanical process. We have a unique ability to take several natural fibres—wood, flax, or hemp—and we can also combine synthetic fibres, whether they be polypropylene, polyester, or fibreglass.
I purchased this equipment from CanFor after I retired. I used to use wood fibre to make automotive panels; this is an automotive panel here. The ones we used to make in CanFor were quite a bit bigger, so I didn't bring them, but this particular one just happens to be the first automotive panel made in Alberta and the first one made out of hemp in North America.
We built this in Drayton Valley. We did have federal and provincial funds to build it. It's a fairly large plant, with about 36 semi-loads and 34,000 square feet. We've been building this for just over four years. It just started to become commercialized about last September in cash flow. Commercialized products include the only completely biodegradable and non-animal-trapping erosion control mat and a weed suppressant mat, and the latest product is a hydroponic grow mat, which is used for [Inaudible—Editor] in any commercial operations and household operations [Inaudible—Editor]. You can see us on our website or Instagram if you wanted to see more examples of that.
We have a lot of products under development, including a grow medium for greenhouses to replace rockwool, which is not very environmentally friendly. We're making a natural fibre insulation to replace pink insulation. We're replacing fibreglass. This year, just as an example, in replacing fibreglass we're working with some large manufacturers in fibreglass plants in Manitoba to replace the glass fibres with hemp and wood fibres.
We're also doing automotive parts. We're working with some Canadian and U.S. companies. This is the example here. We're fairly close to commercializing that. We're doing automotive interiors and industrial equipment interiors, such as tractors. We make 100% compostable feminine hygiene products—well, I shouldn't say we make them, but that's under development. Several other products would include wood siding replacement, which is currently being tested and has proven highly successful.
On the fibre side, we do utilize wood fibres, but right now our favourite is hemp fibres because they're longer and stronger. We normally mix the two fibres together, depending on the engineering qualities required.
An example of the potential of this is that in Alberta there are 17,000 hectares of industrial hemp grown today. It's grown for the seeds and the stalk, and the straw is basically all wasted. That is what we utilize. The value chain potential of utilizing that straw is 485 direct jobs. These are rural jobs. This would require about a $200 million investment, and I can tell you that investment is coming fast to us and our industry, and that would result in about a $220-million annual revenue stream.
I'm not calculating the impact on the wood industry, but our value add would be about 10 times that of the products that the wood industry would currently make from their waste. However, our volumes are quite small when you look at the wood industry.
Industrial hemp is the second-fastest-growing plant on the planet. It sequesters about five times more CO2 than a forest does.
That's my summary. I'm happy to answer questions. Again, we're unique. We're the only one in North America, and I can tell you that we're growing quickly.