from the May 05, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0505/p17s01-sten.html
By John K. Borchardt | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Forget corn processing. Don't wait for switch grass. The real key to producing enough ethanol for America's cars and trucks this century is wood.
That's the contention of researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY). By revamping the way paper is made, they've found an economical way to extract important energy-rich sugars from the trees and then convert these sugars into ethanol, a gasoline additive, and other useful chemicals.
It's a process the researchers call a biorefinery. Installed at the nation's paper mills, biorefineries could produce 2.4 billion gallons of ethanol a year, they estimate, or 80 percent of the nation's projected need this year.
"We know our sources of fossil fuel aren't going to last forever," says Thomas Amidon, a professor at SUNY's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. "Biorefineries allow us to substitute a sustainable energy source: wood."
While the major component of hardwood trees is cellulose, from which paper is made, the second largest component is the sugar xylan. "Hardwoods contain about 35 percent xylan, while northern softwoods contain 9 to 14 percent," notes Dr. Amidon.
Currently, xylan is dissolved during wood processing in paper mills and not utilized. But when it is captured and fermented, xylan produces ethanol, which can be blended with gasoline. "We also expect to find uses for xylan for controlled release of pesticides and as a thickener," Amidon says.
In his biorefinery, extremely hot, pressurized water flows over a bed of wood chips to separate the cellulose for paper. Then the water is forced through a membrane that removes the sugars and acetic acid. What remains can be burned or gasified for combined heat and power uses.
The fermentation process does not use any harsh chemicals, Amidon notes. "The materials we dissolve in the water are natural to begin with. We know how to clean up water well. When it is clean, its release to the environment has no long-term negative consequences."
The process also produces smaller but valuable amounts of acetic acid. Acetic acid is a key ingredient in making polyvinyl acetate, which is widely used in construction materials. The commercial value of acetic acid is nearly three times that of ethanol: 45 cents per pound compared with 18 cents per pound.
Trees have several advantages over other agricultural products for this process, Amidon adds. Wood is a perennial crop that can be harvested every month of the year. It is relatively dense and slow to decay, which facilitates transportation and storage. Large-scale manufacturing operations need to function year-round to be economic and using wood as the raw material base allows that.
Another potential use of biorefineries is in wood-to-energy power plants. Toward that end, researchers at the SUNY center are developing "biomass willow," a fast-growing shrub that works well in the biorefinery process and takes far less energy to produce than corn does, experts say.
Wood-to-energy plants typically burn wood waste - from logging operations, for example. "One of the biggest challenges we face is locating sufficient quantities of this fuel at prices that allow us to earn a profit," says Lloyd Kolb, chief operating officer of Lyonsdale Biomass LLC. But by using biomass willow and integrating a biorefinery within the operation to capture the valuable sugars, the economics of the business improve, he adds.
Lyonsdale, along with International Paper in Stamford, Conn., the world's largest paper company, are two corporate supporters of the SUNY center, which is also partnering with New York State and others to further fund demonstration trials to produce ethanol from wood.
"We view this commercial demonstration as the key final step before full-scale development and commercial applications," which might be two years away, says Michael Brower of the SUNY Center for Sustainable and Renewable Energy.
That timetable is reasonable, although International Paper says it has not set a schedule for commercializing the process.
Biorefineries have the potential to double the profits of the paper industry by turning out value-added products while paper mills continue making conventional paper products, according to Masood Akhtar, a council member of TAPPI, a technical association for the pulp and paper industry.(*)
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Will wood help fill US energy needs?
from the May 05, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0505/p17s01-sten.html
By John K. Borchardt | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Forget corn processing. Don't wait for switch grass. The real key to producing enough ethanol for America's cars and trucks this century is wood.
That's the contention of researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY). By revamping the way paper is made, they've found an economical way to extract important energy-rich sugars from the trees and then convert these sugars into ethanol, a gasoline additive, and other useful chemicals.
It's a process the researchers call a biorefinery. Installed at the nation's paper mills, biorefineries could produce 2.4 billion gallons of ethanol a year, they estimate, or 80 percent of the nation's projected need this year.
"We know our sources of fossil fuel aren't going to last forever," says Thomas Amidon, a professor at SUNY's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. "Biorefineries allow us to substitute a sustainable energy source: wood."
While the major component of hardwood trees is cellulose, from which paper is made, the second largest component is the sugar xylan. "Hardwoods contain about 35 percent xylan, while northern softwoods contain 9 to 14 percent," notes Dr. Amidon.
Currently, xylan is dissolved during wood processing in paper mills and not utilized. But when it is captured and fermented, xylan produces ethanol, which can be blended with gasoline. "We also expect to find uses for xylan for controlled release of pesticides and as a thickener," Amidon says.
In his biorefinery, extremely hot, pressurized water flows over a bed of wood chips to separate the cellulose for paper. Then the water is forced through a membrane that removes the sugars and acetic acid. What remains can be burned or gasified for combined heat and power uses.
The fermentation process does not use any harsh chemicals, Amidon notes. "The materials we dissolve in the water are natural to begin with. We know how to clean up water well. When it is clean, its release to the environment has no long-term negative consequences."
The process also produces smaller but valuable amounts of acetic acid. Acetic acid is a key ingredient in making polyvinyl acetate, which is widely used in construction materials. The commercial value of acetic acid is nearly three times that of ethanol: 45 cents per pound compared with 18 cents per pound.
Trees have several advantages over other agricultural products for this process, Amidon adds. Wood is a perennial crop that can be harvested every month of the year. It is relatively dense and slow to decay, which facilitates transportation and storage. Large-scale manufacturing operations need to function year-round to be economic and using wood as the raw material base allows that.
Another potential use of biorefineries is in wood-to-energy power plants. Toward that end, researchers at the SUNY center are developing "biomass willow," a fast-growing shrub that works well in the biorefinery process and takes far less energy to produce than corn does, experts say.
Wood-to-energy plants typically burn wood waste - from logging operations, for example. "One of the biggest challenges we face is locating sufficient quantities of this fuel at prices that allow us to earn a profit," says Lloyd Kolb, chief operating officer of Lyonsdale Biomass LLC. But by using biomass willow and integrating a biorefinery within the operation to capture the valuable sugars, the economics of the business improve, he adds.
Lyonsdale, along with International Paper in Stamford, Conn., the world's largest paper company, are two corporate supporters of the SUNY center, which is also partnering with New York State and others to further fund demonstration trials to produce ethanol from wood.
"We view this commercial demonstration as the key final step before full-scale development and commercial applications," which might be two years away, says Michael Brower of the SUNY Center for Sustainable and Renewable Energy.
That timetable is reasonable, although International Paper says it has not set a schedule for commercializing the process.
Biorefineries have the potential to double the profits of the paper industry by turning out value-added products while paper mills continue making conventional paper products, according to Masood Akhtar, a council member of TAPPI, a technical association for the pulp and paper industry.(*)
By John K. Borchardt | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Forget corn processing. Don't wait for switch grass. The real key to producing enough ethanol for America's cars and trucks this century is wood.
That's the contention of researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY). By revamping the way paper is made, they've found an economical way to extract important energy-rich sugars from the trees and then convert these sugars into ethanol, a gasoline additive, and other useful chemicals.
It's a process the researchers call a biorefinery. Installed at the nation's paper mills, biorefineries could produce 2.4 billion gallons of ethanol a year, they estimate, or 80 percent of the nation's projected need this year.
"We know our sources of fossil fuel aren't going to last forever," says Thomas Amidon, a professor at SUNY's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. "Biorefineries allow us to substitute a sustainable energy source: wood."
While the major component of hardwood trees is cellulose, from which paper is made, the second largest component is the sugar xylan. "Hardwoods contain about 35 percent xylan, while northern softwoods contain 9 to 14 percent," notes Dr. Amidon.
Currently, xylan is dissolved during wood processing in paper mills and not utilized. But when it is captured and fermented, xylan produces ethanol, which can be blended with gasoline. "We also expect to find uses for xylan for controlled release of pesticides and as a thickener," Amidon says.
In his biorefinery, extremely hot, pressurized water flows over a bed of wood chips to separate the cellulose for paper. Then the water is forced through a membrane that removes the sugars and acetic acid. What remains can be burned or gasified for combined heat and power uses.
The fermentation process does not use any harsh chemicals, Amidon notes. "The materials we dissolve in the water are natural to begin with. We know how to clean up water well. When it is clean, its release to the environment has no long-term negative consequences."
The process also produces smaller but valuable amounts of acetic acid. Acetic acid is a key ingredient in making polyvinyl acetate, which is widely used in construction materials. The commercial value of acetic acid is nearly three times that of ethanol: 45 cents per pound compared with 18 cents per pound.
Trees have several advantages over other agricultural products for this process, Amidon adds. Wood is a perennial crop that can be harvested every month of the year. It is relatively dense and slow to decay, which facilitates transportation and storage. Large-scale manufacturing operations need to function year-round to be economic and using wood as the raw material base allows that.
Another potential use of biorefineries is in wood-to-energy power plants. Toward that end, researchers at the SUNY center are developing "biomass willow," a fast-growing shrub that works well in the biorefinery process and takes far less energy to produce than corn does, experts say.
Wood-to-energy plants typically burn wood waste - from logging operations, for example. "One of the biggest challenges we face is locating sufficient quantities of this fuel at prices that allow us to earn a profit," says Lloyd Kolb, chief operating officer of Lyonsdale Biomass LLC. But by using biomass willow and integrating a biorefinery within the operation to capture the valuable sugars, the economics of the business improve, he adds.
Lyonsdale, along with International Paper in Stamford, Conn., the world's largest paper company, are two corporate supporters of the SUNY center, which is also partnering with New York State and others to further fund demonstration trials to produce ethanol from wood.
"We view this commercial demonstration as the key final step before full-scale development and commercial applications," which might be two years away, says Michael Brower of the SUNY Center for Sustainable and Renewable Energy.
That timetable is reasonable, although International Paper says it has not set a schedule for commercializing the process.
Biorefineries have the potential to double the profits of the paper industry by turning out value-added products while paper mills continue making conventional paper products, according to Masood Akhtar, a council member of TAPPI, a technical association for the pulp and paper industry.(*)
Will wood help fill US energy needs?
from the May 05, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0505/p17s01-sten.html
By John K. Borchardt | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Forget corn processing. Don't wait for switch grass. The real key to producing enough ethanol for America's cars and trucks this century is wood.
That's the contention of researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY). By revamping the way paper is made, they've found an economical way to extract important energy-rich sugars from the trees and then convert these sugars into ethanol, a gasoline additive, and other useful chemicals.
It's a process the researchers call a biorefinery. Installed at the nation's paper mills, biorefineries could produce 2.4 billion gallons of ethanol a year, they estimate, or 80 percent of the nation's projected need this year.
"We know our sources of fossil fuel aren't going to last forever," says Thomas Amidon, a professor at SUNY's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. "Biorefineries allow us to substitute a sustainable energy source: wood."
While the major component of hardwood trees is cellulose, from which paper is made, the second largest component is the sugar xylan. "Hardwoods contain about 35 percent xylan, while northern softwoods contain 9 to 14 percent," notes Dr. Amidon.
Currently, xylan is dissolved during wood processing in paper mills and not utilized. But when it is captured and fermented, xylan produces ethanol, which can be blended with gasoline. "We also expect to find uses for xylan for controlled release of pesticides and as a thickener," Amidon says.
In his biorefinery, extremely hot, pressurized water flows over a bed of wood chips to separate the cellulose for paper. Then the water is forced through a membrane that removes the sugars and acetic acid. What remains can be burned or gasified for combined heat and power uses.
The fermentation process does not use any harsh chemicals, Amidon notes. "The materials we dissolve in the water are natural to begin with. We know how to clean up water well. When it is clean, its release to the environment has no long-term negative consequences."
The process also produces smaller but valuable amounts of acetic acid. Acetic acid is a key ingredient in making polyvinyl acetate, which is widely used in construction materials. The commercial value of acetic acid is nearly three times that of ethanol: 45 cents per pound compared with 18 cents per pound.
Trees have several advantages over other agricultural products for this process, Amidon adds. Wood is a perennial crop that can be harvested every month of the year. It is relatively dense and slow to decay, which facilitates transportation and storage. Large-scale manufacturing operations need to function year-round to be economic and using wood as the raw material base allows that.
Another potential use of biorefineries is in wood-to-energy power plants. Toward that end, researchers at the SUNY center are developing "biomass willow," a fast-growing shrub that works well in the biorefinery process and takes far less energy to produce than corn does, experts say.
Wood-to-energy plants typically burn wood waste - from logging operations, for example. "One of the biggest challenges we face is locating sufficient quantities of this fuel at prices that allow us to earn a profit," says Lloyd Kolb, chief operating officer of Lyonsdale Biomass LLC. But by using biomass willow and integrating a biorefinery within the operation to capture the valuable sugars, the economics of the business improve, he adds.
Lyonsdale, along with International Paper in Stamford, Conn., the world's largest paper company, are two corporate supporters of the SUNY center, which is also partnering with New York State and others to further fund demonstration trials to produce ethanol from wood.
"We view this commercial demonstration as the key final step before full-scale development and commercial applications," which might be two years away, says Michael Brower of the SUNY Center for Sustainable and Renewable Energy.
That timetable is reasonable, although International Paper says it has not set a schedule for commercializing the process.
Biorefineries have the potential to double the profits of the paper industry by turning out value-added products while paper mills continue making conventional paper products, according to Masood Akhtar, a council member of TAPPI, a technical association for the pulp and paper industry.(*)
By John K. Borchardt | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Forget corn processing. Don't wait for switch grass. The real key to producing enough ethanol for America's cars and trucks this century is wood.
That's the contention of researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY). By revamping the way paper is made, they've found an economical way to extract important energy-rich sugars from the trees and then convert these sugars into ethanol, a gasoline additive, and other useful chemicals.
It's a process the researchers call a biorefinery. Installed at the nation's paper mills, biorefineries could produce 2.4 billion gallons of ethanol a year, they estimate, or 80 percent of the nation's projected need this year.
"We know our sources of fossil fuel aren't going to last forever," says Thomas Amidon, a professor at SUNY's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. "Biorefineries allow us to substitute a sustainable energy source: wood."
While the major component of hardwood trees is cellulose, from which paper is made, the second largest component is the sugar xylan. "Hardwoods contain about 35 percent xylan, while northern softwoods contain 9 to 14 percent," notes Dr. Amidon.
Currently, xylan is dissolved during wood processing in paper mills and not utilized. But when it is captured and fermented, xylan produces ethanol, which can be blended with gasoline. "We also expect to find uses for xylan for controlled release of pesticides and as a thickener," Amidon says.
In his biorefinery, extremely hot, pressurized water flows over a bed of wood chips to separate the cellulose for paper. Then the water is forced through a membrane that removes the sugars and acetic acid. What remains can be burned or gasified for combined heat and power uses.
The fermentation process does not use any harsh chemicals, Amidon notes. "The materials we dissolve in the water are natural to begin with. We know how to clean up water well. When it is clean, its release to the environment has no long-term negative consequences."
The process also produces smaller but valuable amounts of acetic acid. Acetic acid is a key ingredient in making polyvinyl acetate, which is widely used in construction materials. The commercial value of acetic acid is nearly three times that of ethanol: 45 cents per pound compared with 18 cents per pound.
Trees have several advantages over other agricultural products for this process, Amidon adds. Wood is a perennial crop that can be harvested every month of the year. It is relatively dense and slow to decay, which facilitates transportation and storage. Large-scale manufacturing operations need to function year-round to be economic and using wood as the raw material base allows that.
Another potential use of biorefineries is in wood-to-energy power plants. Toward that end, researchers at the SUNY center are developing "biomass willow," a fast-growing shrub that works well in the biorefinery process and takes far less energy to produce than corn does, experts say.
Wood-to-energy plants typically burn wood waste - from logging operations, for example. "One of the biggest challenges we face is locating sufficient quantities of this fuel at prices that allow us to earn a profit," says Lloyd Kolb, chief operating officer of Lyonsdale Biomass LLC. But by using biomass willow and integrating a biorefinery within the operation to capture the valuable sugars, the economics of the business improve, he adds.
Lyonsdale, along with International Paper in Stamford, Conn., the world's largest paper company, are two corporate supporters of the SUNY center, which is also partnering with New York State and others to further fund demonstration trials to produce ethanol from wood.
"We view this commercial demonstration as the key final step before full-scale development and commercial applications," which might be two years away, says Michael Brower of the SUNY Center for Sustainable and Renewable Energy.
That timetable is reasonable, although International Paper says it has not set a schedule for commercializing the process.
Biorefineries have the potential to double the profits of the paper industry by turning out value-added products while paper mills continue making conventional paper products, according to Masood Akhtar, a council member of TAPPI, a technical association for the pulp and paper industry.(*)
Will wood help fill US energy needs?
from the May 05, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0505/p17s01-sten.html
By John K. Borchardt | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Forget corn processing. Don't wait for switch grass. The real key to producing enough ethanol for America's cars and trucks this century is wood.
That's the contention of researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY). By revamping the way paper is made, they've found an economical way to extract important energy-rich sugars from the trees and then convert these sugars into ethanol, a gasoline additive, and other useful chemicals.
It's a process the researchers call a biorefinery. Installed at the nation's paper mills, biorefineries could produce 2.4 billion gallons of ethanol a year, they estimate, or 80 percent of the nation's projected need this year.
"We know our sources of fossil fuel aren't going to last forever," says Thomas Amidon, a professor at SUNY's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. "Biorefineries allow us to substitute a sustainable energy source: wood."
While the major component of hardwood trees is cellulose, from which paper is made, the second largest component is the sugar xylan. "Hardwoods contain about 35 percent xylan, while northern softwoods contain 9 to 14 percent," notes Dr. Amidon.
Currently, xylan is dissolved during wood processing in paper mills and not utilized. But when it is captured and fermented, xylan produces ethanol, which can be blended with gasoline. "We also expect to find uses for xylan for controlled release of pesticides and as a thickener," Amidon says.
In his biorefinery, extremely hot, pressurized water flows over a bed of wood chips to separate the cellulose for paper. Then the water is forced through a membrane that removes the sugars and acetic acid. What remains can be burned or gasified for combined heat and power uses.
The fermentation process does not use any harsh chemicals, Amidon notes. "The materials we dissolve in the water are natural to begin with. We know how to clean up water well. When it is clean, its release to the environment has no long-term negative consequences."
The process also produces smaller but valuable amounts of acetic acid. Acetic acid is a key ingredient in making polyvinyl acetate, which is widely used in construction materials. The commercial value of acetic acid is nearly three times that of ethanol: 45 cents per pound compared with 18 cents per pound.
Trees have several advantages over other agricultural products for this process, Amidon adds. Wood is a perennial crop that can be harvested every month of the year. It is relatively dense and slow to decay, which facilitates transportation and storage. Large-scale manufacturing operations need to function year-round to be economic and using wood as the raw material base allows that.
Another potential use of biorefineries is in wood-to-energy power plants. Toward that end, researchers at the SUNY center are developing "biomass willow," a fast-growing shrub that works well in the biorefinery process and takes far less energy to produce than corn does, experts say.
Wood-to-energy plants typically burn wood waste - from logging operations, for example. "One of the biggest challenges we face is locating sufficient quantities of this fuel at prices that allow us to earn a profit," says Lloyd Kolb, chief operating officer of Lyonsdale Biomass LLC. But by using biomass willow and integrating a biorefinery within the operation to capture the valuable sugars, the economics of the business improve, he adds.
Lyonsdale, along with International Paper in Stamford, Conn., the world's largest paper company, are two corporate supporters of the SUNY center, which is also partnering with New York State and others to further fund demonstration trials to produce ethanol from wood.
"We view this commercial demonstration as the key final step before full-scale development and commercial applications," which might be two years away, says Michael Brower of the SUNY Center for Sustainable and Renewable Energy.
That timetable is reasonable, although International Paper says it has not set a schedule for commercializing the process.
Biorefineries have the potential to double the profits of the paper industry by turning out value-added products while paper mills continue making conventional paper products, according to Masood Akhtar, a council member of TAPPI, a technical association for the pulp and paper industry.(*)
By John K. Borchardt | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Forget corn processing. Don't wait for switch grass. The real key to producing enough ethanol for America's cars and trucks this century is wood.
That's the contention of researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY). By revamping the way paper is made, they've found an economical way to extract important energy-rich sugars from the trees and then convert these sugars into ethanol, a gasoline additive, and other useful chemicals.
It's a process the researchers call a biorefinery. Installed at the nation's paper mills, biorefineries could produce 2.4 billion gallons of ethanol a year, they estimate, or 80 percent of the nation's projected need this year.
"We know our sources of fossil fuel aren't going to last forever," says Thomas Amidon, a professor at SUNY's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. "Biorefineries allow us to substitute a sustainable energy source: wood."
While the major component of hardwood trees is cellulose, from which paper is made, the second largest component is the sugar xylan. "Hardwoods contain about 35 percent xylan, while northern softwoods contain 9 to 14 percent," notes Dr. Amidon.
Currently, xylan is dissolved during wood processing in paper mills and not utilized. But when it is captured and fermented, xylan produces ethanol, which can be blended with gasoline. "We also expect to find uses for xylan for controlled release of pesticides and as a thickener," Amidon says.
In his biorefinery, extremely hot, pressurized water flows over a bed of wood chips to separate the cellulose for paper. Then the water is forced through a membrane that removes the sugars and acetic acid. What remains can be burned or gasified for combined heat and power uses.
The fermentation process does not use any harsh chemicals, Amidon notes. "The materials we dissolve in the water are natural to begin with. We know how to clean up water well. When it is clean, its release to the environment has no long-term negative consequences."
The process also produces smaller but valuable amounts of acetic acid. Acetic acid is a key ingredient in making polyvinyl acetate, which is widely used in construction materials. The commercial value of acetic acid is nearly three times that of ethanol: 45 cents per pound compared with 18 cents per pound.
Trees have several advantages over other agricultural products for this process, Amidon adds. Wood is a perennial crop that can be harvested every month of the year. It is relatively dense and slow to decay, which facilitates transportation and storage. Large-scale manufacturing operations need to function year-round to be economic and using wood as the raw material base allows that.
Another potential use of biorefineries is in wood-to-energy power plants. Toward that end, researchers at the SUNY center are developing "biomass willow," a fast-growing shrub that works well in the biorefinery process and takes far less energy to produce than corn does, experts say.
Wood-to-energy plants typically burn wood waste - from logging operations, for example. "One of the biggest challenges we face is locating sufficient quantities of this fuel at prices that allow us to earn a profit," says Lloyd Kolb, chief operating officer of Lyonsdale Biomass LLC. But by using biomass willow and integrating a biorefinery within the operation to capture the valuable sugars, the economics of the business improve, he adds.
Lyonsdale, along with International Paper in Stamford, Conn., the world's largest paper company, are two corporate supporters of the SUNY center, which is also partnering with New York State and others to further fund demonstration trials to produce ethanol from wood.
"We view this commercial demonstration as the key final step before full-scale development and commercial applications," which might be two years away, says Michael Brower of the SUNY Center for Sustainable and Renewable Energy.
That timetable is reasonable, although International Paper says it has not set a schedule for commercializing the process.
Biorefineries have the potential to double the profits of the paper industry by turning out value-added products while paper mills continue making conventional paper products, according to Masood Akhtar, a council member of TAPPI, a technical association for the pulp and paper industry.(*)
Will wood help fill US energy needs?
from the May 05, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0505/p17s01-sten.html
By John K. Borchardt | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Forget corn processing. Don't wait for switch grass. The real key to producing enough ethanol for America's cars and trucks this century is wood.
That's the contention of researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY). By revamping the way paper is made, they've found an economical way to extract important energy-rich sugars from the trees and then convert these sugars into ethanol, a gasoline additive, and other useful chemicals.
It's a process the researchers call a biorefinery. Installed at the nation's paper mills, biorefineries could produce 2.4 billion gallons of ethanol a year, they estimate, or 80 percent of the nation's projected need this year.
"We know our sources of fossil fuel aren't going to last forever," says Thomas Amidon, a professor at SUNY's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. "Biorefineries allow us to substitute a sustainable energy source: wood."
While the major component of hardwood trees is cellulose, from which paper is made, the second largest component is the sugar xylan. "Hardwoods contain about 35 percent xylan, while northern softwoods contain 9 to 14 percent," notes Dr. Amidon.
Currently, xylan is dissolved during wood processing in paper mills and not utilized. But when it is captured and fermented, xylan produces ethanol, which can be blended with gasoline. "We also expect to find uses for xylan for controlled release of pesticides and as a thickener," Amidon says.
In his biorefinery, extremely hot, pressurized water flows over a bed of wood chips to separate the cellulose for paper. Then the water is forced through a membrane that removes the sugars and acetic acid. What remains can be burned or gasified for combined heat and power uses.
The fermentation process does not use any harsh chemicals, Amidon notes. "The materials we dissolve in the water are natural to begin with. We know how to clean up water well. When it is clean, its release to the environment has no long-term negative consequences."
The process also produces smaller but valuable amounts of acetic acid. Acetic acid is a key ingredient in making polyvinyl acetate, which is widely used in construction materials. The commercial value of acetic acid is nearly three times that of ethanol: 45 cents per pound compared with 18 cents per pound.
Trees have several advantages over other agricultural products for this process, Amidon adds. Wood is a perennial crop that can be harvested every month of the year. It is relatively dense and slow to decay, which facilitates transportation and storage. Large-scale manufacturing operations need to function year-round to be economic and using wood as the raw material base allows that.
Another potential use of biorefineries is in wood-to-energy power plants. Toward that end, researchers at the SUNY center are developing "biomass willow," a fast-growing shrub that works well in the biorefinery process and takes far less energy to produce than corn does, experts say.
Wood-to-energy plants typically burn wood waste - from logging operations, for example. "One of the biggest challenges we face is locating sufficient quantities of this fuel at prices that allow us to earn a profit," says Lloyd Kolb, chief operating officer of Lyonsdale Biomass LLC. But by using biomass willow and integrating a biorefinery within the operation to capture the valuable sugars, the economics of the business improve, he adds.
Lyonsdale, along with International Paper in Stamford, Conn., the world's largest paper company, are two corporate supporters of the SUNY center, which is also partnering with New York State and others to further fund demonstration trials to produce ethanol from wood.
"We view this commercial demonstration as the key final step before full-scale development and commercial applications," which might be two years away, says Michael Brower of the SUNY Center for Sustainable and Renewable Energy.
That timetable is reasonable, although International Paper says it has not set a schedule for commercializing the process.
Biorefineries have the potential to double the profits of the paper industry by turning out value-added products while paper mills continue making conventional paper products, according to Masood Akhtar, a council member of TAPPI, a technical association for the pulp and paper industry.(*)
By John K. Borchardt | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Forget corn processing. Don't wait for switch grass. The real key to producing enough ethanol for America's cars and trucks this century is wood.
That's the contention of researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY). By revamping the way paper is made, they've found an economical way to extract important energy-rich sugars from the trees and then convert these sugars into ethanol, a gasoline additive, and other useful chemicals.
It's a process the researchers call a biorefinery. Installed at the nation's paper mills, biorefineries could produce 2.4 billion gallons of ethanol a year, they estimate, or 80 percent of the nation's projected need this year.
"We know our sources of fossil fuel aren't going to last forever," says Thomas Amidon, a professor at SUNY's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. "Biorefineries allow us to substitute a sustainable energy source: wood."
While the major component of hardwood trees is cellulose, from which paper is made, the second largest component is the sugar xylan. "Hardwoods contain about 35 percent xylan, while northern softwoods contain 9 to 14 percent," notes Dr. Amidon.
Currently, xylan is dissolved during wood processing in paper mills and not utilized. But when it is captured and fermented, xylan produces ethanol, which can be blended with gasoline. "We also expect to find uses for xylan for controlled release of pesticides and as a thickener," Amidon says.
In his biorefinery, extremely hot, pressurized water flows over a bed of wood chips to separate the cellulose for paper. Then the water is forced through a membrane that removes the sugars and acetic acid. What remains can be burned or gasified for combined heat and power uses.
The fermentation process does not use any harsh chemicals, Amidon notes. "The materials we dissolve in the water are natural to begin with. We know how to clean up water well. When it is clean, its release to the environment has no long-term negative consequences."
The process also produces smaller but valuable amounts of acetic acid. Acetic acid is a key ingredient in making polyvinyl acetate, which is widely used in construction materials. The commercial value of acetic acid is nearly three times that of ethanol: 45 cents per pound compared with 18 cents per pound.
Trees have several advantages over other agricultural products for this process, Amidon adds. Wood is a perennial crop that can be harvested every month of the year. It is relatively dense and slow to decay, which facilitates transportation and storage. Large-scale manufacturing operations need to function year-round to be economic and using wood as the raw material base allows that.
Another potential use of biorefineries is in wood-to-energy power plants. Toward that end, researchers at the SUNY center are developing "biomass willow," a fast-growing shrub that works well in the biorefinery process and takes far less energy to produce than corn does, experts say.
Wood-to-energy plants typically burn wood waste - from logging operations, for example. "One of the biggest challenges we face is locating sufficient quantities of this fuel at prices that allow us to earn a profit," says Lloyd Kolb, chief operating officer of Lyonsdale Biomass LLC. But by using biomass willow and integrating a biorefinery within the operation to capture the valuable sugars, the economics of the business improve, he adds.
Lyonsdale, along with International Paper in Stamford, Conn., the world's largest paper company, are two corporate supporters of the SUNY center, which is also partnering with New York State and others to further fund demonstration trials to produce ethanol from wood.
"We view this commercial demonstration as the key final step before full-scale development and commercial applications," which might be two years away, says Michael Brower of the SUNY Center for Sustainable and Renewable Energy.
That timetable is reasonable, although International Paper says it has not set a schedule for commercializing the process.
Biorefineries have the potential to double the profits of the paper industry by turning out value-added products while paper mills continue making conventional paper products, according to Masood Akhtar, a council member of TAPPI, a technical association for the pulp and paper industry.(*)
Will wood help fill US energy needs?
from the May 05, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0505/p17s01-sten.html
By John K. Borchardt | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Forget corn processing. Don't wait for switch grass. The real key to producing enough ethanol for America's cars and trucks this century is wood.
That's the contention of researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY). By revamping the way paper is made, they've found an economical way to extract important energy-rich sugars from the trees and then convert these sugars into ethanol, a gasoline additive, and other useful chemicals.
It's a process the researchers call a biorefinery. Installed at the nation's paper mills, biorefineries could produce 2.4 billion gallons of ethanol a year, they estimate, or 80 percent of the nation's projected need this year.
"We know our sources of fossil fuel aren't going to last forever," says Thomas Amidon, a professor at SUNY's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. "Biorefineries allow us to substitute a sustainable energy source: wood."
While the major component of hardwood trees is cellulose, from which paper is made, the second largest component is the sugar xylan. "Hardwoods contain about 35 percent xylan, while northern softwoods contain 9 to 14 percent," notes Dr. Amidon.
Currently, xylan is dissolved during wood processing in paper mills and not utilized. But when it is captured and fermented, xylan produces ethanol, which can be blended with gasoline. "We also expect to find uses for xylan for controlled release of pesticides and as a thickener," Amidon says.
In his biorefinery, extremely hot, pressurized water flows over a bed of wood chips to separate the cellulose for paper. Then the water is forced through a membrane that removes the sugars and acetic acid. What remains can be burned or gasified for combined heat and power uses.
The fermentation process does not use any harsh chemicals, Amidon notes. "The materials we dissolve in the water are natural to begin with. We know how to clean up water well. When it is clean, its release to the environment has no long-term negative consequences."
The process also produces smaller but valuable amounts of acetic acid. Acetic acid is a key ingredient in making polyvinyl acetate, which is widely used in construction materials. The commercial value of acetic acid is nearly three times that of ethanol: 45 cents per pound compared with 18 cents per pound.
Trees have several advantages over other agricultural products for this process, Amidon adds. Wood is a perennial crop that can be harvested every month of the year. It is relatively dense and slow to decay, which facilitates transportation and storage. Large-scale manufacturing operations need to function year-round to be economic and using wood as the raw material base allows that.
Another potential use of biorefineries is in wood-to-energy power plants. Toward that end, researchers at the SUNY center are developing "biomass willow," a fast-growing shrub that works well in the biorefinery process and takes far less energy to produce than corn does, experts say.
Wood-to-energy plants typically burn wood waste - from logging operations, for example. "One of the biggest challenges we face is locating sufficient quantities of this fuel at prices that allow us to earn a profit," says Lloyd Kolb, chief operating officer of Lyonsdale Biomass LLC. But by using biomass willow and integrating a biorefinery within the operation to capture the valuable sugars, the economics of the business improve, he adds.
Lyonsdale, along with International Paper in Stamford, Conn., the world's largest paper company, are two corporate supporters of the SUNY center, which is also partnering with New York State and others to further fund demonstration trials to produce ethanol from wood.
"We view this commercial demonstration as the key final step before full-scale development and commercial applications," which might be two years away, says Michael Brower of the SUNY Center for Sustainable and Renewable Energy.
That timetable is reasonable, although International Paper says it has not set a schedule for commercializing the process.
Biorefineries have the potential to double the profits of the paper industry by turning out value-added products while paper mills continue making conventional paper products, according to Masood Akhtar, a council member of TAPPI, a technical association for the pulp and paper industry.(*)
By John K. Borchardt | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Forget corn processing. Don't wait for switch grass. The real key to producing enough ethanol for America's cars and trucks this century is wood.
That's the contention of researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY). By revamping the way paper is made, they've found an economical way to extract important energy-rich sugars from the trees and then convert these sugars into ethanol, a gasoline additive, and other useful chemicals.
It's a process the researchers call a biorefinery. Installed at the nation's paper mills, biorefineries could produce 2.4 billion gallons of ethanol a year, they estimate, or 80 percent of the nation's projected need this year.
"We know our sources of fossil fuel aren't going to last forever," says Thomas Amidon, a professor at SUNY's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. "Biorefineries allow us to substitute a sustainable energy source: wood."
While the major component of hardwood trees is cellulose, from which paper is made, the second largest component is the sugar xylan. "Hardwoods contain about 35 percent xylan, while northern softwoods contain 9 to 14 percent," notes Dr. Amidon.
Currently, xylan is dissolved during wood processing in paper mills and not utilized. But when it is captured and fermented, xylan produces ethanol, which can be blended with gasoline. "We also expect to find uses for xylan for controlled release of pesticides and as a thickener," Amidon says.
In his biorefinery, extremely hot, pressurized water flows over a bed of wood chips to separate the cellulose for paper. Then the water is forced through a membrane that removes the sugars and acetic acid. What remains can be burned or gasified for combined heat and power uses.
The fermentation process does not use any harsh chemicals, Amidon notes. "The materials we dissolve in the water are natural to begin with. We know how to clean up water well. When it is clean, its release to the environment has no long-term negative consequences."
The process also produces smaller but valuable amounts of acetic acid. Acetic acid is a key ingredient in making polyvinyl acetate, which is widely used in construction materials. The commercial value of acetic acid is nearly three times that of ethanol: 45 cents per pound compared with 18 cents per pound.
Trees have several advantages over other agricultural products for this process, Amidon adds. Wood is a perennial crop that can be harvested every month of the year. It is relatively dense and slow to decay, which facilitates transportation and storage. Large-scale manufacturing operations need to function year-round to be economic and using wood as the raw material base allows that.
Another potential use of biorefineries is in wood-to-energy power plants. Toward that end, researchers at the SUNY center are developing "biomass willow," a fast-growing shrub that works well in the biorefinery process and takes far less energy to produce than corn does, experts say.
Wood-to-energy plants typically burn wood waste - from logging operations, for example. "One of the biggest challenges we face is locating sufficient quantities of this fuel at prices that allow us to earn a profit," says Lloyd Kolb, chief operating officer of Lyonsdale Biomass LLC. But by using biomass willow and integrating a biorefinery within the operation to capture the valuable sugars, the economics of the business improve, he adds.
Lyonsdale, along with International Paper in Stamford, Conn., the world's largest paper company, are two corporate supporters of the SUNY center, which is also partnering with New York State and others to further fund demonstration trials to produce ethanol from wood.
"We view this commercial demonstration as the key final step before full-scale development and commercial applications," which might be two years away, says Michael Brower of the SUNY Center for Sustainable and Renewable Energy.
That timetable is reasonable, although International Paper says it has not set a schedule for commercializing the process.
Biorefineries have the potential to double the profits of the paper industry by turning out value-added products while paper mills continue making conventional paper products, according to Masood Akhtar, a council member of TAPPI, a technical association for the pulp and paper industry.(*)
Will wood help fill US energy needs?
from the May 05, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0505/p17s01-sten.html
By John K. Borchardt | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Forget corn processing. Don't wait for switch grass. The real key to producing enough ethanol for America's cars and trucks this century is wood.
That's the contention of researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY). By revamping the way paper is made, they've found an economical way to extract important energy-rich sugars from the trees and then convert these sugars into ethanol, a gasoline additive, and other useful chemicals.
It's a process the researchers call a biorefinery. Installed at the nation's paper mills, biorefineries could produce 2.4 billion gallons of ethanol a year, they estimate, or 80 percent of the nation's projected need this year.
"We know our sources of fossil fuel aren't going to last forever," says Thomas Amidon, a professor at SUNY's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. "Biorefineries allow us to substitute a sustainable energy source: wood."
While the major component of hardwood trees is cellulose, from which paper is made, the second largest component is the sugar xylan. "Hardwoods contain about 35 percent xylan, while northern softwoods contain 9 to 14 percent," notes Dr. Amidon.
Currently, xylan is dissolved during wood processing in paper mills and not utilized. But when it is captured and fermented, xylan produces ethanol, which can be blended with gasoline. "We also expect to find uses for xylan for controlled release of pesticides and as a thickener," Amidon says.
In his biorefinery, extremely hot, pressurized water flows over a bed of wood chips to separate the cellulose for paper. Then the water is forced through a membrane that removes the sugars and acetic acid. What remains can be burned or gasified for combined heat and power uses.
The fermentation process does not use any harsh chemicals, Amidon notes. "The materials we dissolve in the water are natural to begin with. We know how to clean up water well. When it is clean, its release to the environment has no long-term negative consequences."
The process also produces smaller but valuable amounts of acetic acid. Acetic acid is a key ingredient in making polyvinyl acetate, which is widely used in construction materials. The commercial value of acetic acid is nearly three times that of ethanol: 45 cents per pound compared with 18 cents per pound.
Trees have several advantages over other agricultural products for this process, Amidon adds. Wood is a perennial crop that can be harvested every month of the year. It is relatively dense and slow to decay, which facilitates transportation and storage. Large-scale manufacturing operations need to function year-round to be economic and using wood as the raw material base allows that.
Another potential use of biorefineries is in wood-to-energy power plants. Toward that end, researchers at the SUNY center are developing "biomass willow," a fast-growing shrub that works well in the biorefinery process and takes far less energy to produce than corn does, experts say.
Wood-to-energy plants typically burn wood waste - from logging operations, for example. "One of the biggest challenges we face is locating sufficient quantities of this fuel at prices that allow us to earn a profit," says Lloyd Kolb, chief operating officer of Lyonsdale Biomass LLC. But by using biomass willow and integrating a biorefinery within the operation to capture the valuable sugars, the economics of the business improve, he adds.
Lyonsdale, along with International Paper in Stamford, Conn., the world's largest paper company, are two corporate supporters of the SUNY center, which is also partnering with New York State and others to further fund demonstration trials to produce ethanol from wood.
"We view this commercial demonstration as the key final step before full-scale development and commercial applications," which might be two years away, says Michael Brower of the SUNY Center for Sustainable and Renewable Energy.
That timetable is reasonable, although International Paper says it has not set a schedule for commercializing the process.
Biorefineries have the potential to double the profits of the paper industry by turning out value-added products while paper mills continue making conventional paper products, according to Masood Akhtar, a council member of TAPPI, a technical association for the pulp and paper industry.(*)
By John K. Borchardt | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Forget corn processing. Don't wait for switch grass. The real key to producing enough ethanol for America's cars and trucks this century is wood.
That's the contention of researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY). By revamping the way paper is made, they've found an economical way to extract important energy-rich sugars from the trees and then convert these sugars into ethanol, a gasoline additive, and other useful chemicals.
It's a process the researchers call a biorefinery. Installed at the nation's paper mills, biorefineries could produce 2.4 billion gallons of ethanol a year, they estimate, or 80 percent of the nation's projected need this year.
"We know our sources of fossil fuel aren't going to last forever," says Thomas Amidon, a professor at SUNY's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. "Biorefineries allow us to substitute a sustainable energy source: wood."
While the major component of hardwood trees is cellulose, from which paper is made, the second largest component is the sugar xylan. "Hardwoods contain about 35 percent xylan, while northern softwoods contain 9 to 14 percent," notes Dr. Amidon.
Currently, xylan is dissolved during wood processing in paper mills and not utilized. But when it is captured and fermented, xylan produces ethanol, which can be blended with gasoline. "We also expect to find uses for xylan for controlled release of pesticides and as a thickener," Amidon says.
In his biorefinery, extremely hot, pressurized water flows over a bed of wood chips to separate the cellulose for paper. Then the water is forced through a membrane that removes the sugars and acetic acid. What remains can be burned or gasified for combined heat and power uses.
The fermentation process does not use any harsh chemicals, Amidon notes. "The materials we dissolve in the water are natural to begin with. We know how to clean up water well. When it is clean, its release to the environment has no long-term negative consequences."
The process also produces smaller but valuable amounts of acetic acid. Acetic acid is a key ingredient in making polyvinyl acetate, which is widely used in construction materials. The commercial value of acetic acid is nearly three times that of ethanol: 45 cents per pound compared with 18 cents per pound.
Trees have several advantages over other agricultural products for this process, Amidon adds. Wood is a perennial crop that can be harvested every month of the year. It is relatively dense and slow to decay, which facilitates transportation and storage. Large-scale manufacturing operations need to function year-round to be economic and using wood as the raw material base allows that.
Another potential use of biorefineries is in wood-to-energy power plants. Toward that end, researchers at the SUNY center are developing "biomass willow," a fast-growing shrub that works well in the biorefinery process and takes far less energy to produce than corn does, experts say.
Wood-to-energy plants typically burn wood waste - from logging operations, for example. "One of the biggest challenges we face is locating sufficient quantities of this fuel at prices that allow us to earn a profit," says Lloyd Kolb, chief operating officer of Lyonsdale Biomass LLC. But by using biomass willow and integrating a biorefinery within the operation to capture the valuable sugars, the economics of the business improve, he adds.
Lyonsdale, along with International Paper in Stamford, Conn., the world's largest paper company, are two corporate supporters of the SUNY center, which is also partnering with New York State and others to further fund demonstration trials to produce ethanol from wood.
"We view this commercial demonstration as the key final step before full-scale development and commercial applications," which might be two years away, says Michael Brower of the SUNY Center for Sustainable and Renewable Energy.
That timetable is reasonable, although International Paper says it has not set a schedule for commercializing the process.
Biorefineries have the potential to double the profits of the paper industry by turning out value-added products while paper mills continue making conventional paper products, according to Masood Akhtar, a council member of TAPPI, a technical association for the pulp and paper industry.(*)
Will wood help fill US energy needs?
from the May 05, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0505/p17s01-sten.html
By John K. Borchardt | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Forget corn processing. Don't wait for switch grass. The real key to producing enough ethanol for America's cars and trucks this century is wood.
That's the contention of researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY). By revamping the way paper is made, they've found an economical way to extract important energy-rich sugars from the trees and then convert these sugars into ethanol, a gasoline additive, and other useful chemicals.
It's a process the researchers call a biorefinery. Installed at the nation's paper mills, biorefineries could produce 2.4 billion gallons of ethanol a year, they estimate, or 80 percent of the nation's projected need this year.
"We know our sources of fossil fuel aren't going to last forever," says Thomas Amidon, a professor at SUNY's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. "Biorefineries allow us to substitute a sustainable energy source: wood."
While the major component of hardwood trees is cellulose, from which paper is made, the second largest component is the sugar xylan. "Hardwoods contain about 35 percent xylan, while northern softwoods contain 9 to 14 percent," notes Dr. Amidon.
Currently, xylan is dissolved during wood processing in paper mills and not utilized. But when it is captured and fermented, xylan produces ethanol, which can be blended with gasoline. "We also expect to find uses for xylan for controlled release of pesticides and as a thickener," Amidon says.
In his biorefinery, extremely hot, pressurized water flows over a bed of wood chips to separate the cellulose for paper. Then the water is forced through a membrane that removes the sugars and acetic acid. What remains can be burned or gasified for combined heat and power uses.
The fermentation process does not use any harsh chemicals, Amidon notes. "The materials we dissolve in the water are natural to begin with. We know how to clean up water well. When it is clean, its release to the environment has no long-term negative consequences."
The process also produces smaller but valuable amounts of acetic acid. Acetic acid is a key ingredient in making polyvinyl acetate, which is widely used in construction materials. The commercial value of acetic acid is nearly three times that of ethanol: 45 cents per pound compared with 18 cents per pound.
Trees have several advantages over other agricultural products for this process, Amidon adds. Wood is a perennial crop that can be harvested every month of the year. It is relatively dense and slow to decay, which facilitates transportation and storage. Large-scale manufacturing operations need to function year-round to be economic and using wood as the raw material base allows that.
Another potential use of biorefineries is in wood-to-energy power plants. Toward that end, researchers at the SUNY center are developing "biomass willow," a fast-growing shrub that works well in the biorefinery process and takes far less energy to produce than corn does, experts say.
Wood-to-energy plants typically burn wood waste - from logging operations, for example. "One of the biggest challenges we face is locating sufficient quantities of this fuel at prices that allow us to earn a profit," says Lloyd Kolb, chief operating officer of Lyonsdale Biomass LLC. But by using biomass willow and integrating a biorefinery within the operation to capture the valuable sugars, the economics of the business improve, he adds.
Lyonsdale, along with International Paper in Stamford, Conn., the world's largest paper company, are two corporate supporters of the SUNY center, which is also partnering with New York State and others to further fund demonstration trials to produce ethanol from wood.
"We view this commercial demonstration as the key final step before full-scale development and commercial applications," which might be two years away, says Michael Brower of the SUNY Center for Sustainable and Renewable Energy.
That timetable is reasonable, although International Paper says it has not set a schedule for commercializing the process.
Biorefineries have the potential to double the profits of the paper industry by turning out value-added products while paper mills continue making conventional paper products, according to Masood Akhtar, a council member of TAPPI, a technical association for the pulp and paper industry.(*)
By John K. Borchardt | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Forget corn processing. Don't wait for switch grass. The real key to producing enough ethanol for America's cars and trucks this century is wood.
That's the contention of researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY). By revamping the way paper is made, they've found an economical way to extract important energy-rich sugars from the trees and then convert these sugars into ethanol, a gasoline additive, and other useful chemicals.
It's a process the researchers call a biorefinery. Installed at the nation's paper mills, biorefineries could produce 2.4 billion gallons of ethanol a year, they estimate, or 80 percent of the nation's projected need this year.
"We know our sources of fossil fuel aren't going to last forever," says Thomas Amidon, a professor at SUNY's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. "Biorefineries allow us to substitute a sustainable energy source: wood."
While the major component of hardwood trees is cellulose, from which paper is made, the second largest component is the sugar xylan. "Hardwoods contain about 35 percent xylan, while northern softwoods contain 9 to 14 percent," notes Dr. Amidon.
Currently, xylan is dissolved during wood processing in paper mills and not utilized. But when it is captured and fermented, xylan produces ethanol, which can be blended with gasoline. "We also expect to find uses for xylan for controlled release of pesticides and as a thickener," Amidon says.
In his biorefinery, extremely hot, pressurized water flows over a bed of wood chips to separate the cellulose for paper. Then the water is forced through a membrane that removes the sugars and acetic acid. What remains can be burned or gasified for combined heat and power uses.
The fermentation process does not use any harsh chemicals, Amidon notes. "The materials we dissolve in the water are natural to begin with. We know how to clean up water well. When it is clean, its release to the environment has no long-term negative consequences."
The process also produces smaller but valuable amounts of acetic acid. Acetic acid is a key ingredient in making polyvinyl acetate, which is widely used in construction materials. The commercial value of acetic acid is nearly three times that of ethanol: 45 cents per pound compared with 18 cents per pound.
Trees have several advantages over other agricultural products for this process, Amidon adds. Wood is a perennial crop that can be harvested every month of the year. It is relatively dense and slow to decay, which facilitates transportation and storage. Large-scale manufacturing operations need to function year-round to be economic and using wood as the raw material base allows that.
Another potential use of biorefineries is in wood-to-energy power plants. Toward that end, researchers at the SUNY center are developing "biomass willow," a fast-growing shrub that works well in the biorefinery process and takes far less energy to produce than corn does, experts say.
Wood-to-energy plants typically burn wood waste - from logging operations, for example. "One of the biggest challenges we face is locating sufficient quantities of this fuel at prices that allow us to earn a profit," says Lloyd Kolb, chief operating officer of Lyonsdale Biomass LLC. But by using biomass willow and integrating a biorefinery within the operation to capture the valuable sugars, the economics of the business improve, he adds.
Lyonsdale, along with International Paper in Stamford, Conn., the world's largest paper company, are two corporate supporters of the SUNY center, which is also partnering with New York State and others to further fund demonstration trials to produce ethanol from wood.
"We view this commercial demonstration as the key final step before full-scale development and commercial applications," which might be two years away, says Michael Brower of the SUNY Center for Sustainable and Renewable Energy.
That timetable is reasonable, although International Paper says it has not set a schedule for commercializing the process.
Biorefineries have the potential to double the profits of the paper industry by turning out value-added products while paper mills continue making conventional paper products, according to Masood Akhtar, a council member of TAPPI, a technical association for the pulp and paper industry.(*)
Will wood help fill US energy needs?
from the May 05, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0505/p17s01-sten.html
By John K. Borchardt | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Forget corn processing. Don't wait for switch grass. The real key to producing enough ethanol for America's cars and trucks this century is wood.
That's the contention of researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY). By revamping the way paper is made, they've found an economical way to extract important energy-rich sugars from the trees and then convert these sugars into ethanol, a gasoline additive, and other useful chemicals.
It's a process the researchers call a biorefinery. Installed at the nation's paper mills, biorefineries could produce 2.4 billion gallons of ethanol a year, they estimate, or 80 percent of the nation's projected need this year.
"We know our sources of fossil fuel aren't going to last forever," says Thomas Amidon, a professor at SUNY's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. "Biorefineries allow us to substitute a sustainable energy source: wood."
While the major component of hardwood trees is cellulose, from which paper is made, the second largest component is the sugar xylan. "Hardwoods contain about 35 percent xylan, while northern softwoods contain 9 to 14 percent," notes Dr. Amidon.
Currently, xylan is dissolved during wood processing in paper mills and not utilized. But when it is captured and fermented, xylan produces ethanol, which can be blended with gasoline. "We also expect to find uses for xylan for controlled release of pesticides and as a thickener," Amidon says.
In his biorefinery, extremely hot, pressurized water flows over a bed of wood chips to separate the cellulose for paper. Then the water is forced through a membrane that removes the sugars and acetic acid. What remains can be burned or gasified for combined heat and power uses.
The fermentation process does not use any harsh chemicals, Amidon notes. "The materials we dissolve in the water are natural to begin with. We know how to clean up water well. When it is clean, its release to the environment has no long-term negative consequences."
The process also produces smaller but valuable amounts of acetic acid. Acetic acid is a key ingredient in making polyvinyl acetate, which is widely used in construction materials. The commercial value of acetic acid is nearly three times that of ethanol: 45 cents per pound compared with 18 cents per pound.
Trees have several advantages over other agricultural products for this process, Amidon adds. Wood is a perennial crop that can be harvested every month of the year. It is relatively dense and slow to decay, which facilitates transportation and storage. Large-scale manufacturing operations need to function year-round to be economic and using wood as the raw material base allows that.
Another potential use of biorefineries is in wood-to-energy power plants. Toward that end, researchers at the SUNY center are developing "biomass willow," a fast-growing shrub that works well in the biorefinery process and takes far less energy to produce than corn does, experts say.
Wood-to-energy plants typically burn wood waste - from logging operations, for example. "One of the biggest challenges we face is locating sufficient quantities of this fuel at prices that allow us to earn a profit," says Lloyd Kolb, chief operating officer of Lyonsdale Biomass LLC. But by using biomass willow and integrating a biorefinery within the operation to capture the valuable sugars, the economics of the business improve, he adds.
Lyonsdale, along with International Paper in Stamford, Conn., the world's largest paper company, are two corporate supporters of the SUNY center, which is also partnering with New York State and others to further fund demonstration trials to produce ethanol from wood.
"We view this commercial demonstration as the key final step before full-scale development and commercial applications," which might be two years away, says Michael Brower of the SUNY Center for Sustainable and Renewable Energy.
That timetable is reasonable, although International Paper says it has not set a schedule for commercializing the process.
Biorefineries have the potential to double the profits of the paper industry by turning out value-added products while paper mills continue making conventional paper products, according to Masood Akhtar, a council member of TAPPI, a technical association for the pulp and paper industry.(*)
By John K. Borchardt | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Forget corn processing. Don't wait for switch grass. The real key to producing enough ethanol for America's cars and trucks this century is wood.
That's the contention of researchers at the State University of New York (SUNY). By revamping the way paper is made, they've found an economical way to extract important energy-rich sugars from the trees and then convert these sugars into ethanol, a gasoline additive, and other useful chemicals.
It's a process the researchers call a biorefinery. Installed at the nation's paper mills, biorefineries could produce 2.4 billion gallons of ethanol a year, they estimate, or 80 percent of the nation's projected need this year.
"We know our sources of fossil fuel aren't going to last forever," says Thomas Amidon, a professor at SUNY's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. "Biorefineries allow us to substitute a sustainable energy source: wood."
While the major component of hardwood trees is cellulose, from which paper is made, the second largest component is the sugar xylan. "Hardwoods contain about 35 percent xylan, while northern softwoods contain 9 to 14 percent," notes Dr. Amidon.
Currently, xylan is dissolved during wood processing in paper mills and not utilized. But when it is captured and fermented, xylan produces ethanol, which can be blended with gasoline. "We also expect to find uses for xylan for controlled release of pesticides and as a thickener," Amidon says.
In his biorefinery, extremely hot, pressurized water flows over a bed of wood chips to separate the cellulose for paper. Then the water is forced through a membrane that removes the sugars and acetic acid. What remains can be burned or gasified for combined heat and power uses.
The fermentation process does not use any harsh chemicals, Amidon notes. "The materials we dissolve in the water are natural to begin with. We know how to clean up water well. When it is clean, its release to the environment has no long-term negative consequences."
The process also produces smaller but valuable amounts of acetic acid. Acetic acid is a key ingredient in making polyvinyl acetate, which is widely used in construction materials. The commercial value of acetic acid is nearly three times that of ethanol: 45 cents per pound compared with 18 cents per pound.
Trees have several advantages over other agricultural products for this process, Amidon adds. Wood is a perennial crop that can be harvested every month of the year. It is relatively dense and slow to decay, which facilitates transportation and storage. Large-scale manufacturing operations need to function year-round to be economic and using wood as the raw material base allows that.
Another potential use of biorefineries is in wood-to-energy power plants. Toward that end, researchers at the SUNY center are developing "biomass willow," a fast-growing shrub that works well in the biorefinery process and takes far less energy to produce than corn does, experts say.
Wood-to-energy plants typically burn wood waste - from logging operations, for example. "One of the biggest challenges we face is locating sufficient quantities of this fuel at prices that allow us to earn a profit," says Lloyd Kolb, chief operating officer of Lyonsdale Biomass LLC. But by using biomass willow and integrating a biorefinery within the operation to capture the valuable sugars, the economics of the business improve, he adds.
Lyonsdale, along with International Paper in Stamford, Conn., the world's largest paper company, are two corporate supporters of the SUNY center, which is also partnering with New York State and others to further fund demonstration trials to produce ethanol from wood.
"We view this commercial demonstration as the key final step before full-scale development and commercial applications," which might be two years away, says Michael Brower of the SUNY Center for Sustainable and Renewable Energy.
That timetable is reasonable, although International Paper says it has not set a schedule for commercializing the process.
Biorefineries have the potential to double the profits of the paper industry by turning out value-added products while paper mills continue making conventional paper products, according to Masood Akhtar, a council member of TAPPI, a technical association for the pulp and paper industry.(*)
Tembec to close four plants
By TAVIA GRANT (Globe and Mail Update)
Tuesday, May 17, 2005 Updated at 4:59 PM EDT
Tembec Inc. said it will record a $98.3-million charge as the Canadian forestry-products company closes four manufacturing units in Eastern Canada. The move will affect 459 jobs.
The moves "are necessary in light of the stronger Canadian dollar and other fundamental issues that affect the competitiveness of these mills," Tembec said in a statement. The Canadian dollar has climbed about 22 per cent against its U.S. counterpart in the past three years, making Canadian goods less competitive when sold abroad. While the loonie has weakened this year, for Tembec it appears to be too little, too late.
The announcement comes as Canadian companies are struggling to cope with one of the most difficult periods in the history of forest products. The Montreal-based producer of pulp, paper and wood products reported another quarterly loss last month, sending its shares to a record low. At that time, Tembec warned that the main challenges the industry are the dollar's strength and rising chemical, energy and wood costs.
"After making considerable efforts to stem the significant losses of these mills and find appropriate solutions to the challenges that they are facing, the company came to the conclusion that it had no choice but to shut down these operations," said Tembec president and chief executive Frank Dottori.
Tembec shares fell 4 cents or 1.15 per cent to $3.43 in Toronto.
Tembec will close plants in Saint-Léonard-de-Portneuf, Mansfield-et-Pontefract and Temiscaming, Que., and one in Brantford, Ont. The company's chip plant operations in Temiscaming will continue.
The company expects other closing-related costs of $13.7-million. The after-tax effect of $75.7-million will be recorded in the June 2005 quarter.
In the past year, the facilities generated sales of $112.7-million and negative earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $14.7-million, Tembec said.
Tuesday, May 17, 2005 Updated at 4:59 PM EDT
Tembec Inc. said it will record a $98.3-million charge as the Canadian forestry-products company closes four manufacturing units in Eastern Canada. The move will affect 459 jobs.
The moves "are necessary in light of the stronger Canadian dollar and other fundamental issues that affect the competitiveness of these mills," Tembec said in a statement. The Canadian dollar has climbed about 22 per cent against its U.S. counterpart in the past three years, making Canadian goods less competitive when sold abroad. While the loonie has weakened this year, for Tembec it appears to be too little, too late.
The announcement comes as Canadian companies are struggling to cope with one of the most difficult periods in the history of forest products. The Montreal-based producer of pulp, paper and wood products reported another quarterly loss last month, sending its shares to a record low. At that time, Tembec warned that the main challenges the industry are the dollar's strength and rising chemical, energy and wood costs.
"After making considerable efforts to stem the significant losses of these mills and find appropriate solutions to the challenges that they are facing, the company came to the conclusion that it had no choice but to shut down these operations," said Tembec president and chief executive Frank Dottori.
Tembec shares fell 4 cents or 1.15 per cent to $3.43 in Toronto.
Tembec will close plants in Saint-Léonard-de-Portneuf, Mansfield-et-Pontefract and Temiscaming, Que., and one in Brantford, Ont. The company's chip plant operations in Temiscaming will continue.
The company expects other closing-related costs of $13.7-million. The after-tax effect of $75.7-million will be recorded in the June 2005 quarter.
In the past year, the facilities generated sales of $112.7-million and negative earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $14.7-million, Tembec said.
Saturday, May 07, 2005
A U.S. logger's idea of a 'liquidation' sale
'There's nothing pretty about a clear-cut,' admits timber baron accused of 'rape and pillage' to feed America's demand for wood
By KATHARINE WEBSTER / Associated Press
Saturday, May 7, 2005 Page F3
BERLIN, N.H. -- Logging trucks often outnumber cars on the roads between the Canadian border and this city built around paper, pulp and lumber mills.
But local residents worry that the trucks will be gone in a generation, along with the working forest and the mills, because of indiscriminate logging spurred by fallout from the long-running softwood lumber dispute with Canada.
They also worry about destruction of wildlife habitat and the loss of access to private timberlands for hunting, fishing, hiking, snowmobiling and even blueberry picking.
The catalyst for the debate is T.R. Dillon Logging Inc. of Madison, Me., which bought 9,100 hectares last year in Success, an unincorporated township east of Berlin.
Owner Thomas Dillon, who plans to "commercially clear-cut" about 1,200 hectares a year for three years, also has bought 4,856 hectares in other nearby towns in the past two years.
"He's liquidating the land," says Robert Brown, a member of the Berlin Planning Board who often walks on the land in Success.
"When this guy Dillon is gone -- and I don't blame him personally -- the land's going to be worth nothing. He's going to subdivide it. We know that, and it's tearing people apart up here."
Mr. Dillon's cutting practices in Maine helped to inspire a law restricting "liquidation harvesting," defined as removing nearly all the commercially valuable timber from a parcel. The law, which took effect on Jan. 1, bars owners from selling such land for subdivision within five years.
"A way of doing business here is you buy land, you cut it and you sell it, and if that's a timber liquidator, that's exactly what I am," Mr. Dillon says cheerfully.
But he says he plans to keep the land in Success over the long term and has no plans to subdivide it. "I'm just doing what I need to do as a business person and pay my bills and pay my people," he says. "But say you did want to sell it -- it would be sold as a working forest. To go in and completely butcher, it would defeat your purpose, so it would be bad business."
With clear-cutting rising to meet the demand sparked by the slowdown in wood imports from Canada, neighbouring Maine and Vermont have passed laws to restrict the practice and penalize landowners who cut and run. But the Live Free or Die state places no limits on the amount of timber landowners can cut except in wetlands, buffer strips along lakes and streams and "beauty strips" along town and state roads.
Jasen Stock, executive director of the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association, says that's as it should be, because good forestry cannot be legislated.
Mr. Dillon agrees. The controversy over his cutting practices "has never really been about forestry," he says. "It's about aesthetics, and there's nothing pretty about a clear-cut."
Berlin Mayor Bob Danderson defends Mr. Dillon as a critical supplier of pulpwood to the struggling Fraser Paper Inc. paper and pulp mills in Berlin and Gorham, which employ about 600 people. He also says the timber man is co-operating with city leaders on economic-development projects.
"Dillon is a logger through and through. He's looking at logging not only for now, but for the future of his family, because his son is in the business. I trust that."
Henry Swan, chairman of Wagner Forest Management Ltd. of Lyme, isn't convinced. Mr. Swan, whose company manages timberlands for private and institutional investors, doesn't think the state should buy land Mr. Dillon has logged.
"I don't like states picking up the carcasses of land that somebody's been able to rape and pillage," says Mr. Swan, who also is state chairman of the Nature Conservancy.
But even his detractors say Mr. Dillon's practices are the result of economic forces bigger than any one landowner: the accelerating turnover of land ownership, new types of owners and vacation-home development.
Over the past two decades, the giant paper companies whose mills lie along rivers in northern New Hampshire and Maine near the Quebec and New Brunswick borders have sold most of their lands to timber investment companies, which have sold to other timber investors or loggers-turned-landowners like Mr. Dillon.
Each new owner must cut more heavily to recover his costs and turn a profit. Once all the commercial timber has been logged from an area, it becomes ripe for subdivision or commercial development, permanently removing it from the working forest and fragmenting wildlife habitat.
"Uncertainty of land ownership and the certainty of land turnover on an unprecedented scale have really rocked this state and this region to its roots," says Jym St. Pierre, of the environmental group RESTORE: The North Woods.
The greatest concerns are probably destruction of deer wintering areas and habitat for pine marten, members of the weasel family and a threatened species that relies on forests that aren't too "clean" or clear-cut to provide prey, protection and den sites.
Charles Niebling, policy director of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, says it's time to consider more regulation. His group and the Timberland Owners are collaborating on a survey to figure out exactly how much timber is being cut, and where.
Mr. Niebling also says one thing is clear: What Mr. Dillon is doing is not sustainable and it's not good forestry, and will take much of the land out of timber production over the long term.
"Trees grow back in New Hampshire," he says. "But you're not going to have a mature forest resource for another 40, 50, 80, 100 years." (*)
By KATHARINE WEBSTER / Associated Press
Saturday, May 7, 2005 Page F3
BERLIN, N.H. -- Logging trucks often outnumber cars on the roads between the Canadian border and this city built around paper, pulp and lumber mills.
But local residents worry that the trucks will be gone in a generation, along with the working forest and the mills, because of indiscriminate logging spurred by fallout from the long-running softwood lumber dispute with Canada.
They also worry about destruction of wildlife habitat and the loss of access to private timberlands for hunting, fishing, hiking, snowmobiling and even blueberry picking.
The catalyst for the debate is T.R. Dillon Logging Inc. of Madison, Me., which bought 9,100 hectares last year in Success, an unincorporated township east of Berlin.
Owner Thomas Dillon, who plans to "commercially clear-cut" about 1,200 hectares a year for three years, also has bought 4,856 hectares in other nearby towns in the past two years.
"He's liquidating the land," says Robert Brown, a member of the Berlin Planning Board who often walks on the land in Success.
"When this guy Dillon is gone -- and I don't blame him personally -- the land's going to be worth nothing. He's going to subdivide it. We know that, and it's tearing people apart up here."
Mr. Dillon's cutting practices in Maine helped to inspire a law restricting "liquidation harvesting," defined as removing nearly all the commercially valuable timber from a parcel. The law, which took effect on Jan. 1, bars owners from selling such land for subdivision within five years.
"A way of doing business here is you buy land, you cut it and you sell it, and if that's a timber liquidator, that's exactly what I am," Mr. Dillon says cheerfully.
But he says he plans to keep the land in Success over the long term and has no plans to subdivide it. "I'm just doing what I need to do as a business person and pay my bills and pay my people," he says. "But say you did want to sell it -- it would be sold as a working forest. To go in and completely butcher, it would defeat your purpose, so it would be bad business."
With clear-cutting rising to meet the demand sparked by the slowdown in wood imports from Canada, neighbouring Maine and Vermont have passed laws to restrict the practice and penalize landowners who cut and run. But the Live Free or Die state places no limits on the amount of timber landowners can cut except in wetlands, buffer strips along lakes and streams and "beauty strips" along town and state roads.
Jasen Stock, executive director of the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association, says that's as it should be, because good forestry cannot be legislated.
Mr. Dillon agrees. The controversy over his cutting practices "has never really been about forestry," he says. "It's about aesthetics, and there's nothing pretty about a clear-cut."
Berlin Mayor Bob Danderson defends Mr. Dillon as a critical supplier of pulpwood to the struggling Fraser Paper Inc. paper and pulp mills in Berlin and Gorham, which employ about 600 people. He also says the timber man is co-operating with city leaders on economic-development projects.
"Dillon is a logger through and through. He's looking at logging not only for now, but for the future of his family, because his son is in the business. I trust that."
Henry Swan, chairman of Wagner Forest Management Ltd. of Lyme, isn't convinced. Mr. Swan, whose company manages timberlands for private and institutional investors, doesn't think the state should buy land Mr. Dillon has logged.
"I don't like states picking up the carcasses of land that somebody's been able to rape and pillage," says Mr. Swan, who also is state chairman of the Nature Conservancy.
But even his detractors say Mr. Dillon's practices are the result of economic forces bigger than any one landowner: the accelerating turnover of land ownership, new types of owners and vacation-home development.
Over the past two decades, the giant paper companies whose mills lie along rivers in northern New Hampshire and Maine near the Quebec and New Brunswick borders have sold most of their lands to timber investment companies, which have sold to other timber investors or loggers-turned-landowners like Mr. Dillon.
Each new owner must cut more heavily to recover his costs and turn a profit. Once all the commercial timber has been logged from an area, it becomes ripe for subdivision or commercial development, permanently removing it from the working forest and fragmenting wildlife habitat.
"Uncertainty of land ownership and the certainty of land turnover on an unprecedented scale have really rocked this state and this region to its roots," says Jym St. Pierre, of the environmental group RESTORE: The North Woods.
The greatest concerns are probably destruction of deer wintering areas and habitat for pine marten, members of the weasel family and a threatened species that relies on forests that aren't too "clean" or clear-cut to provide prey, protection and den sites.
Charles Niebling, policy director of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, says it's time to consider more regulation. His group and the Timberland Owners are collaborating on a survey to figure out exactly how much timber is being cut, and where.
Mr. Niebling also says one thing is clear: What Mr. Dillon is doing is not sustainable and it's not good forestry, and will take much of the land out of timber production over the long term.
"Trees grow back in New Hampshire," he says. "But you're not going to have a mature forest resource for another 40, 50, 80, 100 years." (*)
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Birds flock to Canada's boreal woods, study says
By BOB WEBER / Canadian Press
Tuesday, May 3, 2005 Page A10
Scientists are calling it "the nursery."
A new scientific study shows that Canada's boreal forest is even more important to birds across North America than previously thought -- making it, researchers say, even more important to protect.
The study, sponsored by Bird Studies Canada, an independent research group. suggests that roughly one out of every three birds on the continent peeped its first cheep in a nest somewhere in the vast belt of green stretching across the north of virtually all Canadian provinces and the territories.
The report, released yesterday, is entitled North America's Bird Nursery.
"It is quite extraordinary," said Gregor Beck of Bird Studies Canada.
"It is not extravagant to say the boreal forest is home to billions of birds."
Boreal forests extend across North America, Europe and Asia.
Although it faces increasing industrial pressure, Canada's section of it is the largest intact stand left on the planet. At about five million square kilometres, it covers almost half the country.
The report finds that 57 per cent of the commonly occurring birds in the U.S. and Canada depend on the boreal forest at some point, either for breeding, migrating or regular habitat.
The breeding statistics, however, may be the most impressive.
About 38 per cent of all waterfowl in North America are born in the boreal.
For land birds, the figure is 30 per cent -- a figure that holds for shorebirds as well.
In total, the report estimates somewhere between 1.7 billion and three billion birds feather their nests in Canada's boreal forest. Birds that migrate as far south as the Caribbean return every year to hatch their chicks.
"The boreal is globally significant," Mr. Beck said.
The report underlines the importance of careful management of the boreal, he added.
Energy development in areas such as the Mackenzie Valley in the Northwest Territories and increased mineral exploration -- in addition to continuing logging across the entire forest -- could threaten habitat.
"There is going to be industrial activity out there, so we need to ensure it's done to the highest standard," Mr. Beck said.
A two-year-old agreement among environmental, aboriginal and industry groups is already starting to show some results in that direction, said Monte Hummel of the World Wildlife Fund.
The Boreal Forest Conservation Framework, signed in 2003, has helped communities in the NWT identify 20 areas involving 12 million hectares to be set aside from development in the Mackenzie Valley, with another 30 million hectares likely.
In the more southern stretches of the boreal, what Mr. Hummel calls the "working forest," four forestry companies and the Forest Products Association of Canada are in discussions involving another 50 million hectares, Mr. Hummel said.
Those discussions would involve both setting areas aside and changing logging practices. (*)
Tuesday, May 3, 2005 Page A10
Scientists are calling it "the nursery."
A new scientific study shows that Canada's boreal forest is even more important to birds across North America than previously thought -- making it, researchers say, even more important to protect.
The study, sponsored by Bird Studies Canada, an independent research group. suggests that roughly one out of every three birds on the continent peeped its first cheep in a nest somewhere in the vast belt of green stretching across the north of virtually all Canadian provinces and the territories.
The report, released yesterday, is entitled North America's Bird Nursery.
"It is quite extraordinary," said Gregor Beck of Bird Studies Canada.
"It is not extravagant to say the boreal forest is home to billions of birds."
Boreal forests extend across North America, Europe and Asia.
Although it faces increasing industrial pressure, Canada's section of it is the largest intact stand left on the planet. At about five million square kilometres, it covers almost half the country.
The report finds that 57 per cent of the commonly occurring birds in the U.S. and Canada depend on the boreal forest at some point, either for breeding, migrating or regular habitat.
The breeding statistics, however, may be the most impressive.
About 38 per cent of all waterfowl in North America are born in the boreal.
For land birds, the figure is 30 per cent -- a figure that holds for shorebirds as well.
In total, the report estimates somewhere between 1.7 billion and three billion birds feather their nests in Canada's boreal forest. Birds that migrate as far south as the Caribbean return every year to hatch their chicks.
"The boreal is globally significant," Mr. Beck said.
The report underlines the importance of careful management of the boreal, he added.
Energy development in areas such as the Mackenzie Valley in the Northwest Territories and increased mineral exploration -- in addition to continuing logging across the entire forest -- could threaten habitat.
"There is going to be industrial activity out there, so we need to ensure it's done to the highest standard," Mr. Beck said.
A two-year-old agreement among environmental, aboriginal and industry groups is already starting to show some results in that direction, said Monte Hummel of the World Wildlife Fund.
The Boreal Forest Conservation Framework, signed in 2003, has helped communities in the NWT identify 20 areas involving 12 million hectares to be set aside from development in the Mackenzie Valley, with another 30 million hectares likely.
In the more southern stretches of the boreal, what Mr. Hummel calls the "working forest," four forestry companies and the Forest Products Association of Canada are in discussions involving another 50 million hectares, Mr. Hummel said.
Those discussions would involve both setting areas aside and changing logging practices. (*)
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Tembec down 15.3%
By TAVIA GRANT / Globe and Mail Update
Thursday, April 28, 2005 Updated at 5:05 PM EST
Tembec Inc. shares plunged 15.3 per cent to a record low Thursday after the lumber producer posted a loss that was larger than analysts had expected.
The shares fell to a low of $2.94 before closing down 47 cents or 12.8 per cent at $3.20 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on trading of 2.2 million shares.
Earlier Thursday, the Montreal-based company said it narrowed its loss to $26.2-million or 31 cents a share for the second quarter ended March 26, compared with a net loss of $93.2 million or $1.09 a share in 2004.
Analysts had expected a loss of 25 cents a share.
The loss comes as Canadian companies are struggling to cope with one of the most difficult periods in the history of forest products. Looking ahead, Tembec said the main challenges the industry is facing are “the strength of the Canadian dollar and rising chemical, energy and wood costs, particularly in Eastern Canada.”
The company reduced its losses from a year earlier on higher sales and a special currency-related gain. Quarterly sales rose to $904.1-million from $887.2-million. Tembec said its quarterly results included an after-tax gain of $14-million on the translation of its U.S. dollar-denominated debt.
After adjusting for this gain and other specific items, the company would have lost $61.8-million, compared with a $73.8-million loss the previous year.
“Although the interim financial results reflect the improvement in operating earnings over the December quarter, margins in our three main businesses remain below trend line levels,” Tembec said in a statement.
“In the case of forest products, the lumber export duties are the primary cause of the reduced margins. While U.S. dollar pulp and paper prices are increasing, their net effect is being muted by a relatively weak U.S. dollar.”
Tembec is one of Canada's largest forestry companies, with sales of about $4-billion and 11,000 employees around the world.
In an interview this week with The Globe and Mail, Frank Dottori — the long-time chief executive officer of Tembec — blasted critics who want him to break up the company and conduct a fire sale of assets.
With files from Canadian Press.
Thursday, April 28, 2005 Updated at 5:05 PM EST
Tembec Inc. shares plunged 15.3 per cent to a record low Thursday after the lumber producer posted a loss that was larger than analysts had expected.
The shares fell to a low of $2.94 before closing down 47 cents or 12.8 per cent at $3.20 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on trading of 2.2 million shares.
Earlier Thursday, the Montreal-based company said it narrowed its loss to $26.2-million or 31 cents a share for the second quarter ended March 26, compared with a net loss of $93.2 million or $1.09 a share in 2004.
Analysts had expected a loss of 25 cents a share.
The loss comes as Canadian companies are struggling to cope with one of the most difficult periods in the history of forest products. Looking ahead, Tembec said the main challenges the industry is facing are “the strength of the Canadian dollar and rising chemical, energy and wood costs, particularly in Eastern Canada.”
The company reduced its losses from a year earlier on higher sales and a special currency-related gain. Quarterly sales rose to $904.1-million from $887.2-million. Tembec said its quarterly results included an after-tax gain of $14-million on the translation of its U.S. dollar-denominated debt.
After adjusting for this gain and other specific items, the company would have lost $61.8-million, compared with a $73.8-million loss the previous year.
“Although the interim financial results reflect the improvement in operating earnings over the December quarter, margins in our three main businesses remain below trend line levels,” Tembec said in a statement.
“In the case of forest products, the lumber export duties are the primary cause of the reduced margins. While U.S. dollar pulp and paper prices are increasing, their net effect is being muted by a relatively weak U.S. dollar.”
Tembec is one of Canada's largest forestry companies, with sales of about $4-billion and 11,000 employees around the world.
In an interview this week with The Globe and Mail, Frank Dottori — the long-time chief executive officer of Tembec — blasted critics who want him to break up the company and conduct a fire sale of assets.
With files from Canadian Press.
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