Unlocking Value in Wheat Straw: Red Leaf’s Lignin Innovation

At Red Leaf Pulp, we’re not just rethinking pulp - we’re reimagining everything wheat straw can become. Beyond sustainable packing and tissue products, our proprietary alternative fibre process unlocks an overlooked opportunity: lignin - a natural biopolymer with market potential that rivals some of today’s most advanced engineered materials and rare earth materials.

Lignin is emerging as a renewable, bio-based material with powerful applications across multiple industries. Red Leaf Pulp has developed a way to extract, refine, and commercialize lignin cleanly, efficiently, and at scale. Our lignin is low-ash and sulfur-free, offering superior performance and purity.

Through collaboration with industry partners, we’ve demonstrated that Red Leaf’s lignin can be converted into high-purity synthetic graphite suitable for use in batteries, semiconductors, and nuclear applications - opening doors to new low-carbon, Canadian supply chains for critical materials and clean energy manufacturing.

Transforming Agricultural Residue into Renewable Resources

Our first commercial-scale wheat straw pulp mill will begin operations in Regina, Saskatchewan in 2028. Designed to process 1,000 tonnes of raw wheat straw per day, the facility will produce market pulp, renewable energy, and lignin - proving that agricultural byproducts can power a circular, climate-positive economy in Canada.

Today, more than 95% of straw is left in the field. Red Leaf Pulp’s process transforms that underutilized residue into value-added products, helping Canadian farmers increase per-acre income, reduce fuel use, and contribute to a more sustainable agricultural future.

After 18 months of testing at our Material Demonstration Plant (MDP), Red Leaf has proven the quality and consistency of our alternative fibre. With offtake agreements already secured with major molded fibre and tissue producers, the demand for alternative fibre pulp is clear. But pulp is just the beginning.

Solving the Black Liquor Challenge

Unlike wood, wheat straw contains higher silica and hemicellulose levels. When pulped, these dissolve into a byproduct stream called black liquor, along with lignin - nature’s adhesive that binds plant fibres. Black liquor is highly polluting, and in Asia, entire mills have been forced to shut down because of its environmental impacts.

In the Canadian Prairies, integrating wheat straw pulp into existing wood mill recovery systems isn’t viable. For Red Leaf, solving the lignin challenge is essential, not optional.

Our Approach: Extract the Lignin, Eliminate the Problem

Red Leaf has developed a patent-pending lignin separation process that turns a waste stream into a valuable product. Our proprietary system:

Removes lignin before effluent discharge, supporting strict environmental standards
Produces a clean, sulfur-free lignin suitable for advanced material applications
Establishes a low-carbon, bio-based supply chain for renewable industrial products

To accelerate commercialization, Red Leaf is building a Lignin Demonstration Plant (LDP) at InnoTech Alberta’s Mill Woods site, repurposing an existing facility to save capital, reduce timelines, and fast-track lignin innovation.

Market Validation & Global Potential

Patent Filed: Intellectual property protection secured for Red Leaf’s lignin separation process.
Customer Testing: Kilogram-scale samples have been supplied to nearly a dozen global companies.
Offtake Secured: Over 75% of Red Leaf’s lignin production is already under offtake at prices more than double that of pulp - demonstrating its strong commercial value.

From bioplastics and resins to synthetic graphite and battery materials, Red Leaf’s lignin delivers the purity, consistency, and sustainability demanded by emerging industries.

Why It Matters

Circular Agriculture: Converting wheat straw into high-value products reduces waste, emissions, and field passes.
Climate Resilience: Wheat straw regenerates annually, capturing carbon more rapidly than forests.
Domestic Supply Chain Security: Red Leaf’s lignin offers a renewable Canadian feedstock for critical materials like synthetic graphite, supporting clean energy and advanced manufacturing.

What’s Next

The Lignin Demonstration Plant will validate our process and deliver commercial-scale lignin samples for innovators around the world. Potential applications include:

Synthetic graphite for batteries and energy storage at 99.999% purity
Biobased plastics, resins, and composites
Nutritional and agricultural supplements
Advanced battery coatings and binders

By turning the black liquor challenge into a renewable materials opportunity, Red Leaf Pulp is enabling not just our own Regina facility, but a new generation of agricultural-based pulp mills across the globe.

Turning a Byproduct into a Breakthrough

At Red Leaf, we’re building North America’s first large-scale wheat straw pulp mill and setting the stage for a new era in circular, climate-positive manufacturing.

We’re transforming what was once waste into sustainable pulp, renewable energy, and high-value lignin - unlocking opportunity for farmers, partners, and the planet.