Insulation & Building

POTENTIAL YIELDS OF CATTAIL AS LOOSE INSULATION MATERIAL

• An average harvest of 15 tonnes of dry matter per hectare per year can be expected. Under optimal conditions, yields between 20 and 25 tons per hectare per year are achievable

• Market processors are willing to pay between € 100 and € 200 per tonne for raw dry biomass delivered to the processing unit. When cattail is harvested at the end of the season, the biomass is already quite dry and a drying step is not necessary

• For insulation, market prices of around € 100 per m³ are feasible for the consumer. At the moment, the consumer pays € 154 per m³ for comparable insulation products such as hemp, € 95.56 per m³ for flax and € 242 per m³ for sheep wool.

POTENTIAL YIELDS OF CATTAIL FOR CONSTRUCTION BOARDS

Cattail as a construction material requires a slightly different method of harvesting, which resembles the harvest of commercial reed cultivation. This method of harvesting entails additional costs compared to the harvest for loose insulation material. 

• With a yield of 15 to 20 tons per hectare, 150 m³ to 250 m³ of construction and insulation material can be made. Processors are willing to pay € 50 to € 100 per m³. 

• Benefits from residual flows are possible, because not the entire harvest is suitable as building insulation material; there is also some residual flow. Bio-energy can be made from this residual flow or the residual flow can be processed in animal feed or litter. This would make the cattail business case robust against price fluctuations and positively influence it. The margins of this are highly dependent on the properties of the residual flows and the volumes. 

• Cattail construction boards will be comparable to wood fiber OSB boards. Current consumer prices for OSB wood fiber boards vary between € 350 and € 400 per m³. This would mean that after processing cattail could be put on the market for a comparable price.

The global market for green building is growing explosively. It is expected to double in 2018 xix. The reason for this is that sustainable real estate was worth about 7% more than non-sustainable in 2015. In addition, sustainable investments are being earned back in increasingly shorter periods.

There is growing demand for ecological building and insulation materials. Marketing of these products should ideally happen on a small geographical scale, to capture the economic benefits in the region. Unambiguous statistics on the size and growth of the green organic insulation market are not available, but estimates are that it comprises 10-15 percent xx of the market. The total market size for thermal insulation in Europe amounted to 234.6 million m3xxi in 2014. The market is growing at an annual rate of 2.8%, in Western European countries the speed is slightly lower at 2.5%. The growing demand for insulation materials is driven by political guidelines for more energy-efficient construction. In 2002, the European Parliament drew up a directive on the energy performance of buildings. The Dutch government is therefore taking various measures xxii. For example, homeowners can borrow money cheaply for energy-saving measures. In 2012, the government drew up a covenant with the rental sector stating that from 2020 all rental homes must have at least energy label B and that 80% of private rental homes have an energy label C or better xxiii, xxiv. In addition, the government made € 400 million available in 2014 for energy savings in the social rental sector. The Spring Agreement for Energy Savingxxv states that all new buildings may use half as much energy as in 2007 and that all new government buildings must be energy neutral by the end of 2018.

Energy saving is an important part of the sustainable construction measures of the Dutch government, but not the only one. Sustainable construction also involves the use of sustainable materials that take into account the environment and the health of residents and users, a healthy indoor environment for example through good ventilation to prevent moisture, mold and accumulation of harmful substances, sustainable demolition, around the materials that are released during demolition can be reused, responsible water use, prevent raw materials for building materials from being depleted.

Cattail scores extremely well on the aforementioned sustainability criteria. Cattail has a healthy impact on the indoor environment by not emitting VOCs (volatile organic substances). Cattail requires little energy to produce compared to synthetic and mineral insulation materials and therefore scores high on the environmental performance ladder. Cattail is also 100% recyclable. Cattail improves the water quality and captures five times as much CO2 per hectare as a coniferous forest xxvii On this basis it can be concluded that the market for sustainable insulation material has potential. Market parties such as Naporo and Typha Technik already saw an opportunity for cattail here and have invested seriously in processing and production technology and marketing. These are companies that process bulrush into insulation and building material. These companies have the knowledge and skills to make cattail insulation material, but are now in need of raw materials xxviii. In addition to the market for building materials, cattail also has opportunities as a forage crop within organic dairy farming. Cattail can be used as an alternative to (expensive, organic) concentrate. This offers several advantages. In addition to sales and therefore a source of income, it can also be used on your own farm, so that cost savings can be realized.

Since naturally occuring cattails are highly productive plants, it can be assumed that cultivation on an  operational scale can be economically successful. Up to 600 € can be generated per ton of cattail raw material and 5 to 20 t per hectare can be achieved per year2. 

An exploratory study has been carried out to estimate the potential costs and benefits of the cultivation of cattail. Before making this calculation, it should be noted that this crop is not (yet) commercially grown in the Netherlands and that such estimates are difficult. To get an idea of the Market opportunities require several assumptions and are only possible by making the best possible estimate of the potential yields from the various applications based on market prices of comparable raw materials. For each application, a substantiation of the figures is provided and it is always indicated which assumptions have been made for this. The economic analysis, for each possible application of loose insulation material and construction plates, is the first to describe an estimate of the costs to be made for equipment and equipment. From these data, an estimate of the exploitation costs per hectare of cultivated product has been made based on the expected scale size. Subsequently, the potential benefits were estimated. These data lead to a balance with potential costs and benefits and a result. The calculation is based on large-scale cultivation (more than 50 hectares per farmer and a total of more than 500 hectares in the Netherlands).

Scale

Cattail is a bulk product. A larger volume will positively influence the short price and increase the market opportunities. 

Product specifications 

Cattail for application insulation material must not contain too much moisture. In the winter months, the crop contains little water, so that is an optimal harvest time. In addition, the pilot should investigate how cultivation influences quality, so that it can be optimized. Below the specifications that Naporo indicates: 

• Base material: the leaves of the typha (Typha angustifolia or T. latifolia) 

• Diameter> 2.5 cm, clean leaves without seeds, without dirt, pollutions (eg metal pieces or stones ) and without reed. 

• Material humidity <15%. 

• The supplier has to cut the typha leaves and stems into particles. The length of the particles (5 mm - 50 mm) depends on the application and will be defined before delivery. Condition: chain, infrastructure In the Netherlands, the processing capacity is limited. A processing unit will have to be established. The specifications of this follow from further discussions with market parties.

Business chain, infrastructure

Another barrier for introducing cattail on farms is the necessity to change machinery, which means financial investment, and get used to different kinds of crop management as well as hydrological infrastructures maintaining the correct water levels for CO2 emissions to be decreasing. One important issue is the question how ecosystem services of paludiculture can be monetised, and if or how carbon or blue credit systems can play a role in this regard. 

In the Netherlands, the processing capacity is limited. A processing unit will have to be established. The specifications of this follow from further discussions with market parties.

High-quality ingredients

The ingredients found from the tested plant parts either have no market value or there is a market for them, but the Dutch product cannot compete with the price of the ingredient, especially from China. For the production of natural ingredients, cattail is mainly collected from the wild. They use different types of cattail. In addition, a number of substances, such as the amino acid phenylalanine, are synthetically produced for $ 9 per kg of pure substance. Because cattail stems with leaves are used for insulating material, this market requires the entire stalk. It is therefore not possible to extract and isolate any ingredients from the stems. Further research into potentially interesting ingredients that have not yet been detected is therefore not worthwhile, partly due to the high costs involved. Extracts The current market for pollen extracts (with blood clotting as the main effect) is provided by many Chinese companies, with low sales prices. Because the extract is not registered as an official herbal medicine in Western countries (pharmacopoeia), the market is mainly focused on China. It is very difficult for Western companies to enter the Chinese market, especially with products that are already widely produced in China. Both sales price and market protection play a major role in this. In order to enter the Western market on a large scale, the effect of the extract must be scientifically proven. At present it is not known why pollen extract from cattail has an astringent effect. In the short term it is not possible for Dutch farmers to enter this market.

If cattail is to be produced on a large scale and the pollen of cattail is easy to harvest, without damaging the stems, scientific research can demonstrate the effect of a cattail pollen extract. In addition to the cost of the investment of several million euros, depending on the type of product that can be developed, it is not yet clear whether the product is actually innovative to invest in. This will have to be apparent from the investigation. If there is a chance of success, an additional revenue model will be created for the farmer: the cultivation of the pollen and the extraction of this pollen. The costs for the research can be recouped by patenting these findings. There are several companies that have already applied for patents, but have withdrawn this application. In 2006, Johnson & Johnson filed for a patent for an association of improving blood-clotting effects with cattail pollen. In 2008, they withdrew the application from WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) for an unknown reason. It is recommended to first investigate the legal reasons for the withdrawal of the various applications before starting an investigation into the effect of the pollen extract. A bio-fractionation driven activity study (for anti-hemorrhagic or other similar bioassay) coupled with NMR analysis is needed to determine the extraction yield (the amount of dried extract per gram obtained from plant material), the minimum concentration of the extract / fraction containing bioactivity, and the composition / level of composition in the active fraction. These are important data to determine whether Typha latifolia as a medicinal extract for human health care (or, if necessary, isolation of ingredients) is ultimately commercially viable or not.

The basis for this revenue model is the patent and the licenses for the farmers and not the price of cattail pollen. As a result, farmers are not forced to compete with producers abroad on the basis of price, which strengthens the farmers' market position. Another option is to use the extract in veterinary medicine. It could be possible to develop a product for this market. This market has fewer barriers compared to human medicine.

Cattail cultivation for the construction sector seems attractive, provided that the requirements of the market can be met. Stable quality and stable volumes are important, also during the first steps of this trajectory. It is a bulk market, in which price is important. In terms of strategy, we recommend to start growing and harvesting Cattail on a relatively large scale (5 to 10 hectares).

Recommendations for scalable applications  

• Experiment in cultivation with both small and large cattails. 

The small cattail (Typha angustifolia) species appears to be the most suitable for the application of high-quality building material. Also exchange knowledge and experiences with cattail pilots from BetterWetter and Greifswald University.  

• Investigate the possibilities for multiple applications and / or residual flows. 

Building material manufacturers only need a portion of the cattail. The remainder can be used for the bio-energy market, as a sustainable alternative to concentrates and / or for the starch in the roots. It is advisable to contact Hempflax about this.  

• Investigate the most appropriate planting methods. 

Planting material is expensive, so alternative seeding should definitely be explored.  Investigate the most appropriate harvesting methods. Which machines are most suitable from a cultivation perspective, but also with regard to the quality of the harvest and finances. 

• Experiment with residual flows. 

There are opportunities for the residual flows of cattail after processing for the building materials market, both for the energy market and for animal feed and litter. The sale of the residual flows will positively influence the business case and the payback period.  

• Research together with Ecoscala the most suitable processing methods and the appropriate marketing strategy. See Ecoscala declaration of intent.  

• Calculation of how many tonnes of CO2 per residential unit can be saved by using cattail building materials (Radboud University Nijmegen together with HAN). 

This promotes the proposition in the market, either directly (revenue model) or indirectly (attractiveness of the proposition).  

• Exchange knowledge with existing processors. 

Naporo (Austria), Typha technik (Germany) and HuisVeendam are specifically interested in the purchase of unprocessed and processed bulrush.  

• Start selling abroad. 

The short-term opportunities lie in Austria and Germany respectively. In the coming years, further expand relationships in the Netherlands and align cattail building material with the policy of energy-saving measures.  

• Exchange knowledge and experience. 

Stay in touch with the BetterWetter pilot (Eddy Wymenga and Ernst Oosterveld) and Radboud University (Christian Fritz). For experience with animal nutrition please contact the Louis Bolk Institute (Jeroen Pijlman). For bio-energy there is knowledge in Canada IISD (Richard Grosshans) and Germany GMC (Franziska Tanneberger).