Hemp-based fibre could create a new Canadian industry, founder says
Lelia Lawson, the founder and chief technology officer of Zylotex, is on a mission to build a new industry in the Edmonton region around fibres made from hemp.
"(The Edmonton region is a) part of the world where we have very long summer days," Lawson told Taproot. "We could get a very, very large biomass from hemp. If we do see that as a rotational crop here in Alberta, we could have an endless supply of feedstock for this process."
That process sees Zylotex apply a solvent to Alberta-grown hemp to transform the plant into a useable thread, called lyocell. Zylotex can make lyocell, which in turn can be used to manufacture everything from garments, dental floss, construction materials, and more, by using a solvent that's 99.7% recoverable. The solvent, n-methyl morpholine-N-oxide, or NMMO, is in turn far greener than the solvent used in the more common viscose process to create fibre from hemp, which contains carbon disulfide, Lawson said.
"The problem with carbon disulfide is it is toxic — it has been known to cause neurological issues in factory workers," she said. "It's extremely damaging to the environment as well, it's a carcinogen, and it poisons the waters."
Aside from heading the Zylotex startup, Lawson is the research and development specialist for Davey Textile Solutions, which manufactures industrial safety products at a 40,000-square-foot facility in Edmonton. That role informed her about how little fibre for textiles is actually produced in Canada, and ultimately led to creating the new company.
"Canada produces 0.2% of global fibres (annually)," said. "The majority of that is nylon. We do not produce, really, anything else of mention in Canada, so we do have the potential opportunity to manufacture here."
In 2022, Lawson said she was wondering if hemp might be able to create a fibre for Canada's textile industry, and spoke to Dan King, Davey's vice-president of production, and research and development. That conversation pushed her to enroll as a PhD candidate at the University of Alberta to figure out the answer. The university's Folio covered the resulting research last year.
Lawson recalled thinking at the time that if Canada could somehow figure out how to use the whole hemp plant, it could support the hemp economy, the bioeconomy, and create a rotational crop. She also recalled thinking that waste products from hemp processing could be commercialized in fibre production and fuel "a new industry in Canada."
She went on to create Zylotex with Davey's full support in April 2024.
