From wood waste to value-added.Researchers at Lakehead University are fine-tuning a value-adding process to agriculture and forest waste that's almost akin to converting water into wine. Through a technology developed at the Thunder Bay campus, faculty in their chemical engineering and forestry programs say natural resins extracted from biomass can be used as bonding agents for engineered wood products such as plywood, medium density fibreboard fibreboard Noun a building material made of compressed wood Noun 1. fibreboard - wallboard composed of wood chips or shavings bonded together with resin and compressed into rigid sheets fiberboard, particle board and laminates. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In August, their research work received $49,500 from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund The Northern Ontario Heritage Fund is a division of the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines in the Canadian province of Ontario, whose purpose is to provide funding and program support to foster economic development in the economically disadvantaged Northern Ontario region. Corp. (NOHFC NOHFC Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (Government of Ontario, Canada) ). The money is earmarked to further develop the technology and eventually proceed with large scale testing. Chemical engineering professor Dr. Charles Xu says the project looks at producing phenol-formaldehyde resin from forestry biomass and agricultural residue such as sawdust, wood chips, bark, pulp and paper residue, wheat straw and corn stalks. Also in the mix is testing a waste produced from corn ethanol production called DDG DDG Guided Missile Destroyer DDG Deutsche Diabetes Gesellschaft DDG Deputy Director General DDG Drop Dead Gorgeous DDG Deutsche Dermatologische Gesellschaft (German Society of Dermatologists) (distillers dried grains Distillers dried grains is a cereal byproduct of the distillation process. There are two main sources of these grains. The traditional sources were from brewers. More recently, ethanol plants are a growing source. ). "Those will be some of the raw material we are going to use to do the resin production," says Xu. "We can prove the technology we are going to develop is feasible." Eventually, it's hoped these could replace more expensive resins produced from the petrochemical process. The extraction process involves liquifying the forestry and agriculture waste. To make resins from the feedstock, they add formaldehyde. "The liquid contains phenolic phe·no·lic adj. Of, relating to, containing, or derived from phenol. n. Any of various synthetic thermosetting resins, obtained by the reaction of phenols with simple aldehydes and used as adhesives. compound," says Xu, "plus other components from the biomass. We want to analyse the compounds." Over the next three years, they'll use government funding to more fully develop the technology before moving on to the pilot scale stage. Thus far, they've raised $400,000 from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs along with NOHFC and FedNor for the research stage and Xu says they're also looking for private sector support. The wood waste is provided by Thunder Bay-area companies, Northern Wood and Superior Thermowood, with pulp and paper sludge coming from the local Bowater plant. The project is part of Lakehead's ongoing research to find ways to efficiently convert forest waste and industry by-products such as mill sludge, sawdust and harvest residues into bio-fuels, bio-resins and other high-value chemical feedstocks. Dr. Xu and forestry scientist Mathew Leitch are part of a team assembling equipment for a green energy laboratory. They aim to produce new fuels and energy products from northwestern Ontario's huge potential of biomass energy and make the forestry industry more competitive by using renewable energy. Their work has raised more than $330,000 in grants from the Canada Foundation for Innovation Mission and Mandate The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) is an independent corporation created by the Government of Canada to fund research infrastructure. The CFI's mandate is to strengthen the capacity of Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals, and and the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation The Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation is a government ministry of the Province of Ontario. The current minister is Dalton McGuinty, who is also Premier of Ontario. The portfolio was announced as part of a cabinet shuffle on June 29, 2005. for the specially-equipped lab. www.lakeheadu.ca By IAN ROSS Northern Ontario Business Northern Ontario Business is a Canadian magazine, which publishes monthly in Greater Sudbury, Ontario. The magazine covers business news and issues in Northern Ontario. |
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