SASKATOON – Getting more useful products out of renewable resources like wood is the goal of scientists who are using Canada’s only synchrotron.

We recently discussed the various factors that are impacting market pulp prices. Market pulp is a critical global commodity within the pulp and paper industry as it plays a primary role in manufacturing numerous paper grades.

Our research refines the tree's own glue – lignin – into materials, chemicals and motor fuels. We also develop processes to utilise and refine the large amounts of lignin and other wood polymers that chemical pulp mills and other biorefineries receive as a by-product.

Marzouk Benali and Moye Ajao jointly with a team from the University of Delaware brought together by Thomas Epps, III, and including, among others, Marianthi Ierapetritou and Dion Vlachos, have written a paper in which they demonstrate that it is possible to efficiently turn industrially processed lignin into high-performance plastics, such as bio-based 3D-printing resins, and valuable chemicals.

UD researchers report low-pressure method to convert industrially processed biomass into plastics, chemicals

Structures and vehicles built with sustainable materials are in high demand to meet today’s needs and for future generations.

Waste generated by textile recycling can be used to make paper. Using this waste as a raw material instead of incinerating it also reduces our environmental impact.

The U.S. pulp and paper industry uses large quantities of water to produce cellulose pulp from trees. The water leaving the pulping process contains a number of organic byproducts and inorganic chemicals.

Researchers at TU Graz develop green alternatives to fossil raw materials. Bio-based materials are expected to reduce pollution and drive the shift to a more sustainable economy.

Researchers at KTH have developed a more eco-friendly way to remove heavy metals, dyes and other pollutants from water. The answer lies in filtering wastewater with a gel material taken from plant cellulose and spiked with small carbon dots produced in a microwave oven.

Pulp mill waste hits the road instead of the landfill

Plastics are one of the world’s largest polluters, taking hundreds of years to degrade in nature.

VTT is testing Thermocell plastic film made of cellulose and fatty acids in the production of food packaging in cooperation with Arla Foods, Paulig, and Wipak.

Researchers at the University of Maryland have turned ordinary sheets of wood into transparent material that is nearly as clear as glass, but stronger and with better insulating properties. It could become an energy efficient building material in the future.

Borregaard has received a commitment of NOK 15.7 million in funding from the Research Council of Norway for a project for the development of biochemicals to replace petrochemical alternatives.

A Japanese company and Kyoto University have joined forces to develop what they hope will be the world's first satellites made out of wood by 2023.

Integrated paperboard manufacturing consists of a number of unit processes that continuously generate large amounts of process data. Manufacturing is energy-intensive and variations must be taken into account to achieve the optimal production process.

Direct co-dissolution of cellulose and lignin is a recent and emerging technological field of interest, having its importance in the production of bio-based reinforcing fibers such as carbon fibers.

Poland Spring, University of Maine to explore bio-based materials

A group of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory has discovered a way to convert a common byproduct of the paper manufacturing process into valuable chemical precursors for making nylon.

Scientists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in Germany have developed a new sustainable method of extracting the flavoring agent vanillin from lignin, a component of wood. Large quantities of waste lignin accumulate during the production of pulp, an important raw material for making paper.