new forest-based materials can lead to more products, better returns: new technology can add new value to currently low value components in wood processing. the industry must bridge three gap areas to reap these rewards.

Editor\'s note: The information in this article was collected by a team of experts at the forest, wood and paper industry technology summit held in Peachtree City, Georgia, USA on May 2001. (
Provide more detailed reports;
Contact Tom Amidon at team idon @ syr by email. edu).
The team has developed ways to improve the economic return of the wood processing industry by developing new forest materials (NFBM)
Chemical and Biochemical methods are used.
A separate NFBM team gathers together to adopt a material science approach to current or new products, and these results are reported separately.
The technology summit was co-hosted by TAPPI, AF & PA and the United States. S.
Office of Industrial Technology, Department of Energy.
For more information, please visit www. tappi. org/ctosummit. asp.
The economic return on wood processing has been sluggish for a long time
Unless the return over capital costs becomes the norm, the long-term health of the industry is a risk.
The forest industry is the largest producer of renewable energy and bio-energy.
But the main product--
Solid wood, restructured wood paper and paper by-products-
All from Africa.
Renewable products such as steel and plastic
Composite materials and petroleum
Derivative chemicals.
In other industries based on heterogeneous raw materials, some competitive strategies have proven successful (
Materials based on mining, oil, corn and other natural resources).
One strategy is to divide complex resources into more uniform parts to increase their value (
Cumulative separation gap).
Another strategy is to change the conversion technology to get more value from raw materials or components (
Known as the reform gap).
The third strategy is to adjust the conversion technology of other industries to improve the lower value part (
Called conversion gap).
The goal of the forest industry is to apply these methods to wood processing. The New Forest-
Basic materials (NFBM)
The meeting of the technical summit identified gaps in all three tactical approaches and proposed gaps --
Fill in every job.
Successfully filling these gaps will enhance the economic sustainability of biosustainable Wood
Using industry to provide a large number of incremental biological resources for the national economy.
Gap: carefully observe the separation gap, focusing on the separation of heterogeneous raw materials to increase the total value of recycling.
The proposed chemical grading is the ongoing development of solid wood sales practices currently classified by size and quality.
The idea is to expand the separation and recover more value from the wood flow part where chemical pulp is the highest current value. Some (but not most)
Although there is no cost-effective route at present, the potential unit value of the product envisaged is higher than cellulose.
To close this gap, the industry must develop uses for some of the resources that are currently less valuable.
Half cellulose is of low value in current processing of bleach grade pulp and poor fuel value-
Even if there is no degraded part during the beating process.
Wood has good fuel value, but its value is much lower than that of many chemical materials.
Filling this gap requires one or two of the following two methods: a clean separation process that can remove semi-cellulose without degradation of cellulose, another pulp by-product that can be separated without sulfur reaction.
Recycled semi-cellulose can compete with other sugar sources in the world for bioconversion into platform chemicals or into some basic chemical products currently made from oil.
If semi-cellulose can be separated at a higher molecular weight, they may be applied to products of higher value using polymer properties.
For glue and plastic, unhydrolyzed Wood is a better starting material than the currently available hydrolysis Wood.
These potential Wood uses are 10 times more valuable than Wood\'s current fuel.
The reform gap emphasizes a new approach to developing wood and pulp processing.
These methods include plasticization, expansion and dissolution of wood and wood components to form, reshape and regenerate them, making them products that cannot be produced by current processing methods.
This gap may also include the development of new types of glue that can be used for current products.
Our understanding of international relations continues to growand intra-
The molecular force of the wood composition should lead to future processing methods using this technology.
The current example is the work of using ionic liquids, the commercialized MMO solvent system, and the advancement of knowledge of the supercritical fluid.
In the past, the experience value of plasticizing the entire wood with ammonia was re-examined with modern material science tools.
The economic benefits will come from products that cannot be made from wood at present, as well as new manufacturing processes that can obtain higher production and lower energy costs, or the potential products to improve environmental properties are mainly made from today\'s plastics and penetrate modern life.
The focus of the conversion gap is to adjust the process to make the biomass, wood and wood components the preferred raw material for chemical, biochemical and thermal conversion different from the products on the tree.
Based on other substrates, some transformation processes have been well developed.
The economic gains are derived from a large amount, mainly good potential profits.
The developed chemical market, which has a cost-competitive sustainable resource base, is now almost worthless.
In the past, the work of converting wood into specific chemicals and polymers different from trees focused on the entire wood (
It\'s hard to break down natural design)
Or conversion of cellulose (
It\'s hard to break down, but it\'s also the highest
Main components of value of wood matrix).
A key requirement for this work is the customer
Based on a list of potentially profitable chemicals that may reasonably be obtained from wood and paper by-products.
Ideally, such inventory will include a list of the required property and a minimum quantity commercially viable.
The transformation work in the future needs to focus on: * catalyst to promote the conversion of biomass into chemicals and polymers;
* High cost-effective hydrolysis of semi-cellulose and cellulose into sugar and fermentation;
And * technical development of raw materials using non-high inventoryglucose sugars.
Have a better understanding of pyrolysis (cracking)
It is also requested because it may provide a useful and direct route to produce products from wood, wood composition or pulp by-products.
Closing two blanks: a half cellulose example the following section is an example of linking and closing the separation and conversion gaps to produce essential chemicals with significant market growth.
Ethanol Extracted from glucose is very developed.
Unfortunately, as currently applied in business, it uses the most valuable cellulose at the moment (
Hydrolysis to glucose)
As the main source of sugar.
The process\'s commercial adaptation to wood semi-cellulose is a prerequisite for using components of biomass and wood that are currently of lower value.
These semi-cellulose are mainly glucose-
Magnolia in hard wood and Galaxy in soft wood (
Having an important Cork component of arabino. xylan)
The fermentation substrate is different from cellulose.
An example of a modest scale indicates a potential supply of large quantities (
1000 dry and short tons/pulp)
Hardwood floor pulp factory for the manufacture of bleached grade pulp.
The incoming stakes account for at least 20% of the hard chips.
Based on wood, 50% of the bleaching pulp yield is used, and the amount of wood Bolt available in the raw material is 400 tons/day (
2000 tons of wood processing with a block content of 20%).
This is equivalent to collecting 140,000 tons/year in one place, and the current production system covers the cost of procurement, harvesting, transportation, peeling and cutting.
The annual raw material value of this 140,000 tons/year is $16.
$8 million, $0. 06/lb. The year-
Without increasing storage costs or losses, the full supply of wood chips helps to develop continuous processing with the subsequent capital efficiency.
Adaptation of ethanol fermentation to Magnolia
Derivative sugar is also very interested in agriculture because of the low price and the relatively high content of corn straw can be used for the season.
An ethanol production facility based on 140,000 tons/year of raw materials will match the fuel ethanol facility currently being built in the US.
Further discussion of the effective use of wood in the production of chemicals, fuels and advanced materials is a key challenge for the United StatesS.
President Clinton set a national goal in 2010 to double the use of bio-based products by August 1999 (
Administrative Order No. 13134).
Wood products are now part of the foundation of sustainable social development;
The work suggested here opens up a way to increase the number of products from the resources currently harvested.
Suggested pathways for wood in the gap areas of separation and transformation will develop technologies that are widely applicable to agricultural residues and woody biomass.
This may lead to mixed raw material conversion facilities, although wood grown in the forest may dominate due to continuous supply and higher density.
The relatively high value obtained by cellulose, combined with the large scale of the current processing operation, should provide a convincing economy for existing pulp mills to produce incremental wood components from low value.
The existing paper industry has a great advantage over the new facilities in applying the successful results of the work suggested for separation and transformation pathways.
The reform gap is more challenging and fundamental in nature.
The current conversion process emphasizes the mechanical and chemical disassembly of the wood to manufacture other solid materials.
Most of these processes fail to convert a considerable amount of raw material into the intended product, and most products retain some of the bad features of the original material, such as the size changing due to moisture changes.
The growing knowledge of materials provides hope that as we learn more, we will be able to increase, expand, dissolve wood and wood components, and mold it into a product that can only be made of plastic today.
The expected work has greatly affected the solid wood and restructured wood industry, but may also create new uses for pulp.
The manufacturing system may be quite different from the one currently in use.
The advantages of existing facilities are mainly due to location and market knowledge.
More bio-based products are urgently needed.
The number of potential products is large enough to affect demand across the country.
The industry must fill the gaps identified;
Successful research and development in these areas will enhance the economic sustainability of the biosustainable wood use industry. New Forest-Basic materials--
Member of the chemistry/Biochemistry Conference panel: Mr. Hou, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, suny esf joe bozel, TOM AMIDON
Paul ghenholm, North Carolina State University, Tom Jeffries, Chalmers University, USDA Forest Products Laboratory, Mike Lake, westwaco(
MeadWestvaco now)
US Department of Energy Mark Paster talk author: This article is a team project summarized by Thomas E.
Amington, professor and chairman of thesis science and engineering, a forestry, School of Environmental Science, State University of New York.