Posted on 16 March 2022 by Gillian.
Cancarb, a regular sponsor of our presentation of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour, is our latest Library Card for Every Hatter sponsor! Their $4,500 donation equals 900 FREE library cards for adults in our community (children’s cards are always free).
Cancarb, for those of you who don’t know, is the production facility that you drive past along Brier Park Road on your way to Costco. They've been operating in Medicine Hat since 1973, but very little of their product is sold at home - only 5% of their sales are in Canada! Instead, they ship their product to 44 countries around the world.
At this point you might be asking, what exactly is this product you speak of? Well, Cancarb is the world's largest producer of thermal carbon black - a product that is added as an element in many items including rubber (like your windshield wipers, rubber seals, etc.), plastic (auto parts, hoses, etc.), concrete (patio blocks, pillars, etc.), metallurgy, graphite, coloured glass, ceramics, carbon composites, high temperature insulation, refractories, and more!
So why would Cancarb set up shop in Medicine Hat if hardly any of their product is even sold here? Because we have a great supply of natural gas! And thermal carbon black is produced by breaking natural gas into its individual elements - carbon and hydrogen. The resulting product is known as Thermax® and is shown below.
To create Thermax®, Cancarb uses LOTS of heat. But, being the environmentally responsible company that they are, they use that waste heat to help power our homes! More on this process in a future blog post.
For now, get to MHPL to get your FREE library card courtesy of Cancarb! If yours just needs to be renewed, you can do that here. And when you get a card with their sponsorship money, be sure to thank them by using the hashtag #CancarbCares, or you could send a traditional letter to their establishment.
